The Myth of Me

With so many choices to make every day, do you worry that you will appear inconsistent? This worry is a sleight-of-hand by your rational brain, smuggling in a biased notion of consistency: consistency with a rational story of yourself.

Our rational brains are fixated on the stories we tell ourselves and others about who we are. But these stories are not who we actually are. To paraphrase Emerson, you cannot help but act in accordance with your true self, but you can easily act inconsistent with a story you tell of self.

One of my least favorite sayings is "I cannot believe I did that. That is not me." Invariably, this statement follows some action that is incongruent with the personal identity myth they have been peddling about themselves. In reality, the action is perfectly true to the self; the problem is that the story of the self is not true.