A Harvard professor said the idea we should embrace ourselves with all our flaws and failures in order to succeed could be dangerous.

Michael Puett, a professor of Chinese history who has published his controversial ideas in the book The Path What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life, argues against the popular Western philosophy that loving yourself will lead to success.

“The common assumption most of us make about the self is that our goal as individuals is to look within, find our true selves, and try to be as authentic and true to ourselves as we can be. But this assumes we have a stable self,” Puett told Quartz.

The professor teaches Chinese history at Harvard where his classes attract more than 700 students. He explained that humans are “messy creatures”, often defined by their moods and routines.

“From a very young age, we’ll form patterns of responding to the world. Those patterns will harden and become what we mistakenly call a personality,” he added.

This means that by accepting our flaws, as currently advised by many self-help books, we will never break out from our habits and our narrow understanding of who we are.

Instead we will fall into patterns and ruts that will dominate our lives, Puett explained.

According to Chinese philosophers, we should constantly strive to challenge ourselves and change our behaviours, starting by little things like the way we speak or smile.

“Start using slightly different tones of voice, look at people in a slightly different way,” Puett said

What's your biggest regret?

“When you do this, you start to realise very quickly the degrees to which we’re rutted creatures,” he added.

The idea behind the process is to realise it is possible that the whole vision we have of our personality is wrong and the way we are leading our life at the moment is limiting. That way we can start shifting these patterns, according to Puett.

China's New Year getaway Show all 10 1 /10 China's New Year getaway China's New Year getaway 'Factory worker Mingxiang is learning to cook. He and his wife Haiying are delighted that their daughter Zhi recently came in the top three in her class at school' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Newly married student teachers Danping and Shuizong carry a cross-stitch of the word Happiness' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Changfu, a teacher, is proud that some of his students got into university last year. He also played his first ever game of tennis – and loved it' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Shufeng and his son Ping are roadmen. They love working together' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Jiapeng has just introduced his girlfriend Jijia to his parents. He says it's the best New Year's gift he could give' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Jiantao was robbed when he arrived in Guangzhou, but a shelter helped him buy a ticket home. He says New Year's Day will be a family reunion' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Sha, a student and retired soldier, last year was proud to pass her civil service exams and get her driving licence' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Decorator Benyun says his family's happiest moment last year was the birth of his grandson' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Teenagers Mengyao and Yaqi moved to Guangzhou to work in sales. They enjoy independence from their parents' Yuyang Liu China's New Year getaway 'Retired from local government, Gongxuan has taken up calligraphy and loves playing the erhu' Yuyang Liu

The ancient philosophy was mirrored with current findings in psychology such as Daniel Kahneman’s theory published in the book Thinking, Fast and Slow which argues that anchoring on ideas could have serious consequences on our lives.