The story is told of two disciples of one of the great Hasidic masters who met after being separated for many years.
One asked the other: “Why was man created?”
“To refine himself,” was the other’s reply.
Said the first: “Have you forgotten what we learned? Man was created to raise the heavens!” (that is, not to think about himself at all, just to be unified with the divine).
In other words, one who serves God in order to attach oneself to God achieves the purpose of self-improvement, but the one who serves to “unite the Holy One with His Shekhinah does so to raise the heavens.
He does not think of self improvement, not because such a thing does not exist, but because it is insignificant, compared to the essence of his mission in life, to raise the heavens.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz