A middle-aged woman had a heart attack and was rushed to the emergency room. On the operating table she had a near-death experience; seeing God, she asked if this was it. He said, “No, you have another forty-three years, two months, and eight days to live.” Upon recovery, she decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, a tummy tuck, the whole works. She even had someone come in and change her hair color, figuring that since she had so much life remaining, she might as well make the most of it. She was discharged after the final procedure; however, while crossing the street outside, she was killed by a speeding ambulance. Arriving in God’s presence, she fumed, “I thought you said I had another forty-plus years.” He replied, “I didn’t recognize you.” Be yourself. Think about it: Aren’t most of the discontented people you know trying to be someone they aren’t or trying to do something they’re not supposed to do? A Congolese proverb asserts, “Wood may remain ten years in the water, but it will never become a crocodile.” Jeremiah asks, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?” (13:23). Julius Hare advised, “Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.” The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change. CARL ROGERS Frederic Klopstock remarked, “He who has no opinion of his own, but depends on the opinions of others, is a slave. To only dream of the person you are supposed to be is to waste the person you are.” Nobody is as disappointed and unhappy as the person who spends her life longing to be somebody else. The person who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away. If you don’t have a plan for your own life, you’ll only become a part of someone else’s. Never wish to be anything but yourself. Andre Gide counseled, “It is better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not.” Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have. There is only one life for you—your own. The person who walks in someone else’s tracks never leaves his own foot- prints. Most of our challenges in life come from not knowing ourselves and ignoring our true virtues. John Stuart Mill observed, “All good things . . . are the fruit of originality.” Most people live their entire lives as complete strangers to themselves. Don’t let that happen to you. Leo Buscaglia admonished, The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position. The opposite of courage is not fear but conformity. Nothing in life is more exhausting and frustrating than trying to live it as someone else. Consider these words from one of history’s greatest artists: My mother said to me, “If you become a soldier you’ll become a general; if you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.” Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. No one ever became great by imitation: Imitation is limitation. Don’t be a copy of something. Make your own impression. Dare to be who you are.