“So, if you need to do any comparison at all—do it with your potential self!”

– Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

“Stand up tall.”

I wanted to tell my mother that I was standing up tall. In fact, I think I pulled a muscle in my back from standing up so tall. If I had stood up any taller, I’d have been standing on tip-toes. Once a year since we were little, Mother had stood my brother and me in the doorway to the kitchen and put a pencil mark to indicate our height. Standing back, one could see many pencil marks and names – clear indications of how much each of us had grown since toddlers.

“Well,” I asked. “How tall am I?”

Mother got out her fabr...

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