No one imagines that a symphony is supposed to improve in quality as it goes along, or that the whole object of playing it is to reach the finale. The point of music is discovered in every moment of playing and listening to it. It is the same, I feel, with the greater part of our lives, and if we are unduly absorbed in improving them, we may forget altogether to live them.– Alan Watts
Many of us have been into personal growth for so long we can’t remember what life was like before self-improvement became a constant refrain. It honestly surprised me when personal growth as a life purpose lost its shine, when I realized I had been searching for so long and looking so hard for a certain something (not that I knew what it was) that I’d missed most of what had happened along the way. Anything that wasn’t part of my agenda was dutifully ignored or only partially experienced or appreciated. When I’m able to stop looking for things to fix, suddenly everything put before me begins to shine with its own beautiful light.