“A great man is always willing to be little.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

When we aspire to be a little more than we were yesterday, we begin to grow. Personally, I’m counting on it, because I’ve been far from perfect. It would be nice to inch a little closer to it today. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll get there. Well, perhaps one day.

Every day we dance with our imperfections, knowing we’ll never reach excellence in all things but trying just the same. The trying is the thing—derived from an aspiration for better, for a sense that we’re moving in the right direction even when we reconcile the things that didn’t go so well. We often fall short in our days, yet still progress towards a better version of ourselves simply by trying again.

When we stop trying to be the biggest person in the room and stop telling ourselves and others that we have it all figured out, we may find that humility fits us well. We’ve come to a place in our lives where everything we’ve done and learned about the world and our place in it forms this incomplete character. We are who we are, imperfect as that may be. Character is nothing but a foundation from which to build upon. The trick is simply to add a little more of what we’d like to see.