I remember reading quite some time ago an analogy about people. We all spend time constructing a false front around ourselves like a decrepit house with a facade. It appears from the road to be a well constructed, large house. This is the us we show to most people. Some people get to come closer and see the sides, which are also false, but less time is spent on the construction of them. Then even fewer people get to see the back. This is not the real you, but it is much closer, the seams show through.
Of course there is also the real you, carefully hidden under all of the facades. We show to nobody, we trust nobody with that part.
Here is my problem, I don’t even like the front of my house, never mind the rest of it. I am not happy with the better me I pretend to be. When I try and improve myself, am I improving the real me, or just making a better facade?