(7) SELF-ACCEPTANCE

No real success or genuine happiness is possible until a person gains some degree of self-acceptance. The most miserable and tortured people in the world are those who are continually straining and striving to convince them­selves and others that they are something other than what they basically are. And there is no relief and satisfaction like that that comes when one finally gives up the shams and pretenses and is willing to be himself. Success, which comes from self-expression, often eludes those who strive and strain to "be somebody," and often comes, almost of its own accord, when a person becomes willing to relax and—"Be Himself."
Changing your self-image does not mean changing your self, or improving your self, but changing your own men­tal picture, your own estimation, conception, and realiza­tion of that self. The amazing results which follow from developing an adequate and realistic self-image, come about, not as a result of self-transformation, but from self-realization, and self-revelation. Your "self," right now, is what it has always been, and all that it can ever be. You did not create it. You cannot change it. You can, however, realize it, and make the most of what already is by gaining a true mental picture of your actual self. There is no use straining to "be somebody." You are what you are—now. You are somebody, not because you've made a million dollars, or drive the biggest car in your block, or win at bridge—but because God created you in His own image.
Most of us are better, wiser, stronger, more competent now, than we realize. Creating a better self-image does not create new abilities, talents, powers—it releases and utilizes them.
We can change our personality, but not our basic self. Personality is a tool, an outlet, a focal point of the "self" that we use in dealing with the world. It is the sum total of our habits, attitudes, learned skills, which we use as a method of expressing ourselves.