JJ Smith once said self improvement is like a boiling kettle, it heats faster (keenly) unobserved. 

And so is the Christian life,  

The more attention we get off ourselves the more likely we are to grow, behold, and change. 

Or like the author of Hebrews 12 implies, the more we fix our eyes on Jesus, the more we overcome what easily entangles. 

No wonder many of our self-improvement projects fall flat, we set up the wrong goals and consequently live inferior lives.