The Self You Think You Are vs The Self You Actually Live As

My reader, today I want us to crack our brains a little. Let's get into it shall we?

The Self you think you are………..who is this? It's that version you've created in your head/mind/brain. It's that version who says I am a writer, yet never sits down to write even a single line. It's that person who says they value family yet never calls their family members,,not even once. The self you think you are is that guy who says I am healthy yet neither excercises nor eats healthy. To go even further, the self you think you are is you when you say you are disciplined yet you keep on postponing what you said you'd do six months ago. The self you think you are exists, but not in reality, not in actions only in your head. Quick question for you who's reading this; "Are you who you believe you are, or who your daily actions reveal you to be?" Most of us would like to say both. We'd like to believe that our intentions count for something. That the person we aspire to become deserves a seat at the table. And perhaps they do. But imagine I told you I was a musician, yet I have not touched an instrument in five years. At what point does that identity become imagination rather than reality? At what point do our actions get the final say?

Now, The self you actually live as…..who is this? The self you actually live as is the version that leaves footprints in the world.. It is the version revealed through repetition. Through habits. Through choices made when nobody is watching. It is the version that emerges from what you consistently do rather than what you occasionally promise yourself you'll do. While the self you think you are is built from intentions, the self you actually live as is built from evidence. Let's use this scenario my gentle reader. Imagine a person who proudly says they love reading. Their shelves are full of books, they constantly recommend titles and speak passionately about literature. Yet when they look back, they realize they have not finished a single book in over a year. Do they love reading, or do they love the idea of being someone who reads? Even better let's use this other case: Imagine a stranger followed you around for thirty days. They cannot hear your intentions. They cannot access your dreams. They cannot see the person you hope to become. All they can observe are your actions. At the end of those thirty days, who would they say you are?

The in-between. The gap between who you think you are and who you live as. Does this mean that who you think you are is irrelevant? Does it stand no chance? The self you actually live as: Is this the ultimate end goal? Is this self you live as not even supported by the self you think you are? I'm also trying to decipher this my reader. In my view, these two selves are dependent on each other. Not fully, but partially. The self you live as first existed in your head as the self you think you are. The self you think you are is a driver to becoming the self you live as. This makes me ask, can one self exist without the other? Tell me what you think in the comments. Because the person who says they are an athlete yet they've run once in the past three months, what does that make them? The person who says they are fit yet only works out twice in a month, what does that make them? Someone who calls themselves healthy yet struggles with maintaining a good diet, what does that make them?

To sum it all up, perhaps neither self should be ignored. The self you think you are points towards who you wish to become, while the self you live as reveals who you are at this moment. One provides direction, the other provides evidence. The question then is not which self matters more, but whether the distance between them is growing or shrinking. Are your actions slowly catching up with your intentions, or are they drifting further apart? That, my reader, is for you to decide.