applying oneself and studying hard to cultivate oneself / friendly competition, improving oneself by learning from others

apply oneself and study hard to improve oneself / try to improve by learning from others

to plan, to aim (to do something)

improvement, an action taken to improve / improvement, a spontaneous change for the better

(transitive) to improve, to make better / (intransitive) for something to improve on its own

betterment, improvement, amelioration

together, with

combined, merged, unified

combination; a state which is combined / meeting

(chiefly women's speech) first person singular pronoun: I, me