I accept myself for who and how I am now.

A lot of living gets done provisionally. The good plates stay in the box. The trip waits for a future version of you who will enjoy it more, and who is always about eighteen months away.

Acceptance is easy to grant that version. It costs nothing to like somebody who has already made the improvements, and it never quite falls due.

The one who has to be accepted is currently sitting in the chair, mid-project, with the specific mix of good and unfinished that today happens to contain. That one gets the plates.