As someone navigating BPD, I've come to realize that my "best self" is simply another idealization, a fantasy unlikely to bring me true wellness even if it were attainable, a construct designed to make small victories like "I'm feeling slightly better" not seem like genuine progress. 

Trying to be my "best self" is like driving to a destination that's constantly moving away from you: you can't get there, and even if you did, you wouldn't feel at home for long. 

I see the idea of "reaching one's true potential" as similarly self-defeating, since it sets the bar for wellness and personal thriving unreasonably high. It only reinforces the type of rigid thinking that many of us with BPD strive to avoid. 

I think genuine improvement, for me at least, means that I don't hate myself for how I lived on any given day, that I can maintain a stable self-image that doesn't rest (entirely) on my achievements but rather on my ability accept myself on any given day--best self or not. 

I'm NOT saying "just accept that you have limitations and lower your expectations about who you can be and what you can do." Rather, I'm saying that by construing wellness through the (alluring) lens of idealization will actually inhibit us from genuine self-improvement and actualization. I don't think I'm alone in having thought this way.

Or so it seems to me. I'd love to hear other perspectives.