Never Stop Developing
"If you are not a better person tomorrow than you are today, what need have you for a tomorrow?"
Human existence is not just about proceeding in life and seeing what’s up next, but about developing. We are born with certain qualities, and our education and environment have added other traits and habits. Once we’ve reached adulthood it’s easy to believe that we are “done”: this is how we are, and we cannot change. Quite the contrary, it’s now that our work begins.
Introspection is necessary to know yourself. From time to time we have to look inwards to see if we are who we really want to be. You might realize that you’re always holding back - work on your courage! - or all too often pushing others - work on your patience!
We need to assess ourselves with honesty to see what inner qualities we should develop, or as Plotinus puts it:
“Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful as yet, do as the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful; the sculptor cuts away here, smoothes there, makes this line lighter, this other purer, until he or she has shown a beautiful face upon the statue.”
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