I like who I am, but I am also inspired to improve my being.

An elbow patch on a jumper you still wear is a small act of respect. Nobody mends what they've written off.

Holding both at once, fondness and ambition, is harder than either alone. Pure acceptance can go slack. Pure improvement runs on dislike and burns out by spring.

The test comes after a bad week. If the ambition survives without turning on you, it was the good kind. If it converts into an inventory of your faults, something other than improvement is doing the talking.