Balance and Peace

My friend Jeff Chow has been hiking the Appalachian Trail, and has been maintaining a multimedia-rich blog for well-wishers and curious gawkers (like myself) to share in his experiences. In one of his recent posts, he posed the following question:

"If you believe that one should accept oneself as you are and also believe that one should try to continue to grow and improve oneself, how do you balance the two ideas?"

I responded with:

Accept yourself for the person you are, with the “person you are” being something (someone) that *contains* the *potential* to be much more than you are right now. There’s untapped potential in you, that isn’t being expressed yet. Becoming aware of and tapping and utilizing that potential = growth. If you can look back on your past and say to yourself - “I did the best that I could have done, under the circumstances”, then that’s the best you can be, and that’s all you need to accept.

... I think. ;)

Figured I'd include it here on my own blog as well. :)

Btw, check out an excellently produced slideshow (with audio overlay) about the AT called `An Enduring Journey', published by the Minneapolis StarTribune and featuring JeffC himself, here. (Requires the Adobe Flash player to be installed on your computer.)