There's no "I" in Statement

One of the most compelling impulses I seem to have is the tendency to use "I" statements. I'm good at this. I like to do that. When this happens, this is what I like to do. It like a very natural thing to do, but it occurs to me that every time I make an "I" statement, I almost always find the statement incomplete or incorrect, not because I enjoy lying, but because "I" statements are much more dynamic than I thought at first.When I make a statement about myself, what I am really doing is thinking about what I've done or how I've felt in the past, marking a tendency in my mind, adjust that tendency to create harmony with the way I already think of myself, and then making the statement. After all, it's very difficult to describe something that constantly changes, and it's much more comfortable to think of myself as predictable to my own psyche. But am I? Certainly not. As much as I'd like to think I know myself, I cannot always express my tendencies correctly or predict my reactions accurately, so statements I make about myself I find to be awkward at best.

Instead of making "I" statements, which are in essence just silly predictions--"I'm pretty laid back", "I don't cry at movies", "I do my best work under pressure"--maybe the most accurate and compelling way we have to describe ourselves is by simply living. Instead of locking myself into a certain prediction that I may feel so obligated to fulfill that I alter my actions just to fit it, maybe I should allow myself to live naturally and leave the tendency marking and prediction making to those who see me live. In this way, I have lived not up to a false and trivial standard set by an "I" statement, but simply lived and let others tell the stories. For some reason, perhaps because of their wider perspective, I find that others are much better at describing me than I am.