Once you become the project, you forget you’re a person.

It starts out subtle. A new supplement, a stretching routine, a better way to eat. Harmless, right? Until every choice starts whispering that what you are isn’t quite enough. Your skin needs correcting. Your posture needs adjusting. Your stomach needs shrinking. Somewhere along the way, self-care turns into self-surveillance. You stop tending to yourself and start managing yourself.
This isn’t about giving up on growth—it’s about seeing the trap. Improvement culture thrives when you never arrive. When the goalpost keeps moving. When you believe that if you just fix the next thing, you’ll finally feel at home in your own skin. But some of these “fixes” don’t free you. They just keep you looping in the belief that comfort must be earned. And the more you try to get it right, the more distant ease becomes.