picture in my mind

... the good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination. The destination is that selected by the total organism, when there is psychological freedom to move in any direction.

(Carl) Roger's view was that the good life is not an outcome to be achieved, once and for all, but rather it is a process that we are constantly engaged with and are continually moving towards when we are the authors of our own lives. Rogers described the directions taken by people as they become more fully functioning. These include movement:

• Away from facades
• Away from oughts
• Away from meeting expectations
• Away from pleasing others
• Towards self-direction
• Towards openness to experience
• Towards acceptance of others
• Towards trusting oneself

In these ways we become free to move in a new direction that is most authentic to us.

-- Professor Stephen Joseph, Authentic: How to Be Yourself and Why It Matters