Follow beauty to truth and truth to beauty

This month I am thinking hard about this statement I read recently and adapted for my own bent for philosophical queries:

Follow truth to beauty and beauty to truth.

And I am simultaneously considering this quote from Thomas Merton as well:

I no longer believe that our life’s task is to change or even improve “self”.  Instead, I see it as a turning toward, a graced movement bringing us more and more into congruence with the person we were meant to be.

The way forward may be more about moving toward whom you were created to be (i.e., a graced movements toward congruence, authenticity, and beauty) and not by striving and slogging through tough self-improvement tasks (i.e., grit and determination shaming ourselves into change). 

If these tenets were true and you could fully live them out starting today, would that change anything…or maybe everything?