Here is the question for you; Is there something "rotten to the core" in you? Or; Do you just need "a little"improvement, or some behavior modification?
The big picture; What is the condition of man, why are we the way we are, what happened to us all? What went wrong? Didn't God make man in his own image, wasn't everything good when God made everything at the beginning? This world isn't like it was in the garden of Eden and we don't have the same kind of life that Adam and Eve enjoyed at first. God made man and put him in the garden of Eden, he made him a helper, Eve and they walked in fellowship with God and God walked with them and talked to them. But Satan came in the form of a snake and tempted them and instead of listening to God their Creator; they listened to the devil's lies instead. That's how sin and death entered in and that's why they got thrown out of the garden of Eden. Life became hard and most of all they lost their fellowship with God. They had become sinners and they died to God. We all are now born with Adam's sinful nature and we naturally tend towards sin and away from God. Therefore we need salvation. We need to be brought back to God, we need to be restored to fellowship with him, what's wrong between us and God needs to be made right, we need to be washed clean of our sins. We need a new heart and a new Spirit. We need to be born of God. This is all God's action and made possible through Jesus dying on the cross for our sins and living a life of obeying all of his Father's commandments and thereby obtaining righteousness for us who are forgiven and born of God's Spirit. Salvation is being rescued from perishing, being brought back to our Heavenly Father, being in a right relationship with him and to him, becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus. Having a change of desires, being set free from being a slave to sin and becoming a slave to righteousness; to doing what pleases our Heavenly Father.