Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.
The real sting of this teaching lies in its demand for *active perfection*—not some vague acceptance of your flaws, but the harder work of becoming excellent at precisely who you are. Most of us read "be what you are" as permission to coast, when Francis means the opposite: stop wasting energy on fantasies of becoming someone else and pour that energy into mastering your actual capabilities. A mediocre pianist who accepts her limits but practices relentlessly will find more joy and produce better music than a frustrated pianist always wishing she had a composer's gift. The liberation comes not from lowering standards but from redirecting them toward what's genuinely yours to perfect.
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Viktor Frankl“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you ast...”
Rumi“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.”
Steve Jobs