I am reading a very interesting book entitled Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own In Chapter Three, the author Kate Bolick refers to a study done by two social psychologists. The subject is self-knowledge, "a technical term for the store of information you draw on the answer the question "Who am I?" This "information bank" draws from ideas about oneself created throughout a person's life (past) as well as the person's current self-impressions (present). But there is also the "imagined future." "(The psychologists) posited that along with our "past selves" and our "now selves" we all contain "possible selves" -- our ideas about who we wish to someday be, as well as who we're afraid of becoming. These possible selves could simultaneously be the rich self, the thin self, the married self -- and also the lonely self, the sick self, the homeless self."

With that background in mind, I found this paragraph particularly interesting:
"(One of the psychologists) said there's an inarguable cultural discrepancy. Our Western emphasis on the individual makes us believe we are singularly responsible for and have control over the shape of our lives, she explained, whereas in the East there's a greater awareness that many factors -- norms, obligations, expectations, other people, the situation, luck, circumstance -- determine how our lives turn out, and if they turn out the way we want. "In those Eastern worlds, the idea of having a positive self is less important, because the individual isn't afforded as much efficacy," she said."

Food for thought. What do you see when you imagine your future self? Are there different future selves depending on how certain circumstances in your present life develop? How responsible do you feel for crafting your own future self? To what degree do you acknowledge the many other factors that may take control out of your hands?