Self Improvement Vs. Self-Correction

Namaste!
Lots of thoughts flew by in the last week. However they didn't compel me to update here. Yesterday and today I am mulling over above subject. I never paid attention to second part until I read a chapter from "The Secret of Letting Go" book. All along I was thinking and doing lots of self-improvement. Never thought about self-correction (consciously). Here is the summary of the section (Self-Correction is Self-Elevation) from third chapter (How to Defeat what's defeating you) of the book.

Guy Finley, Author says, "On one hand, each of us profess to be concerned with growing, and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong." This itself takes long time to digest. He also says, "The whole idea of modifying ourselves, of slowly improving through time, is born out of our reluctance to be wrong." According to him, we add different skills to our arsenal based on our choice and what we think will help us to grow. So, this is a process of self-addition though which we acquire new knowledge, skills, behaviors and beliefs.

Author also says, "Denying any problem makes you its guardian and leaves you chained to being wrong." & "Being wrong is not the problem. Defending the life-level that produced the wrongness is where we make the mistake." & "Pride is the middle name of the false self".

Also according to him, we are not tied to our past mistakes unless we decided to tie ourself and that's what the false self wants and tricks us to do. As I told before, he uses wonderful metaphors. Look what he said about false self when it tries to sell the past mistakes with guilt, anxiety and shame, etc. He says, false self continue to sell anchors that look like life vests. :-)

I will close this post with couple of more paragraphs.. According to him, "all personal difficulties are born out of a lack of understanding. By trying to hide the problem from yourself, you shut the window on the possibility of looking into your current life-level, which is the only world where real correction can take place".

Through out the book, he gives lots of powerful lists and questions. Here is 5 out of 10 questions he gave for "Self Wholeness".

1. Instead of always asking yourself why things had to go this way or that way, learn to ask Why is the way I feel always determined by external conditions?

2. Instead of always asking yourself what to do about tomorrow (or the next minute), learn to ask Can there ever be intelligence in anxiety or worry?

3. Instead of always asking yourself why so-and-so acts this or that way, learn to ask what inside of me that wants to hurt itself over how anyone else act?

4. Instead of always crying out "Why me?" learn to ask Who is this "me" that always feels this way?

5. Instead of always asking yourself how to get others to approve of you, learn to ask What do I really want, the applause of the crowds or to quietly have my own life?

It never ends. So, grab the book from Amazon or any other bookstore and read it. Here are the book details.
The Secret of Letting Go by Guy Finley

Have a terrific day.

Nagaraj