To find out if the substitute or complement dominates will depend on many factors.

• The material itself. Some types of self-improvement provide a large emotional payoff but are weak on substantial follow-up. They don't make good complements.
• The Natur...

We live between rigidity and malleability. It means that both self-discovery and self-improvement matter.

• Self-discovery matters because the goals you set, and the life philosophy you hold, needs to be informed by the parts of yourself that tend to be fixed.

Let's define self-improvement. The definition of self-improvement is pretty self-explanatory: Self-improvement is the improvement of one's knowledge, status, or character by one's own efforts. It's the quest to make ourselves better in any and every facet of life.

Self-improvement almost al...