Amanda’s blog

    I have this person in my mind who is exactly the way I want to be. She's not a perfect person, by any means, but perfection is boring anyway. She's strong, capable, and self-assured. She's patient, funny, and can fend for herself. I see her in my mind very clearly. I've always admired this person (who is strictly imaginary, but has always felt like a sort of friend). Psychology tells me this is my Ideal Self, and I suppose that's a good a name as any.

    I am not this person. I'm lazier, I'm heavier, I'm a little too in love with procrastination and settling for what's alright instead of working for what's great. Perhaps as a result, I tend toward melancholy (which really doesn't suit me) and isolation. But yesterday, the thought came to me- out of nowhere- that if I wanted to be this person I so admire, I had to act like her. I can't sit on the couch playing video games and reading novels if I wanted to be like my ideal self, who would enjoy a day-long hike through the woods. My ideal self makes things happen; my current self lets things happen. My ideal self knows quite a bit and can put her knowledge to use; my current self procrastinates on studying.

    And it just hit me, yesterday, that it would not take too much to start moving in the right direction, and take to heart some lessons from the ideal me. How much better would my life be if I was more like my ideal self? I'd be physically very healthy, I'd have a more active role in my life and environment, and I'd be quite a bit more skilled. No part of that is negative. So I resolved, at that moment, to try every day to be more like my ideal self- to exercise my brain, to exercise my body, to be really aware of my environment and to really love my life, and to write whenever I get the inspiration.

(Note: Of course my ideal self plays video games and reads novels. She is still me, after all. She just does other things, too.)

It's so... pretty. I don't know why I have the compulsive need to blog-- and blog-shop. I have a blog at livejournal, where I rarely post but adore my f-list. I have a blog at myspace. And now I have a Vox blog. And I have to say I'm most impressed with Vox- simply, so far because it's new, it's clean, it's shiny, and wow is it pretty.

I like it. I really like it.