Question: How do you improve if your problem is that self-improvement never works for you?
Answer: I agree with you, despite all the claims otherwise “self-improvement” is an oxymoron. After all how could we “pull ourselves up by pulling our own hair”?!
If we remain within ourselves we are simply running in never ending circles, we cannot break out of our egocentric, selfish, subjective prisons.
If we are serious about “self-improvement” we need others we trust, who can pull us above ourselves in a mutually supportive, mutually complementing environment.