Originally Posted by
squark
I'd say that depends on what your goals are, and what "self-improvement" means to you. What does it mean to you to be your best self?
That said, I've never seen anything good come from people focusing on their super-ego. Don't mess with that shit. Let people who are good at it do it, and stay out of their way. You're better off not even thinking about it.
If your goal is to be a more well-rounded, healthier individual, dabble in your dual's functions, but act from your ego. Meaning, incorporate DS and HA in some measure in your life, but don't make decisions from them, they're background for your leading and creative. Kind of the life and meaning in your actions, they give substance to what you're doing, but they can't lead what you do. Ahhh, how to explain that better. . . ?
Don't ignore 7 and 8 entirely, but know they're not you, and you don't have to use them if you don't want to. They're the support for your lead and creative. What I mean by that if your lead is Fi, you'll pull from Fe to support it. You draw out what you want and need, only enough to be of use to your Fi. Same with Ni, you use it in support of Ne, if your creative is Ne. For me, I use Te just enough to support my Ti, etc. Seven and eight are accessible, but you don't worry about them, and you definitely don't focus on them. You don't want to try to improve these, because it takes your time and energy away from the fun stuff, and overfocus becomes draining, deadening, and stressful.
One problem with "self-improvement" is that too often people look at "what am I bad at?" and try to fix it, rather than saying, "what do I want?" and living their lives in accordance with that. So, what you get is a lot of people struggling to be some idea of a perfect, flawless individual, and forgetting about making their lives truly happy. When people are actively reaching towards what they truly want, then they are happy. Doesn't matter what the specific goal is, as long as it's what they want. Even if the goal is something like being able to have tons of time to sit around and do nothing.
The only useful self-improvement in my opinion, is that of character. Am I an honest person? Am I truthful with myself, and others? How do I treat other people, and myself? Do I respect myself and other people? Those kinds of things don't have anything to do with type. Messing with focus on functions, and trying to tweak your use of them to become some kind of perfectly functioning super-human, is not only fruitless, but a miserable endeavor as well.