My Ideal Self

Everyone tends to make their ideal self as hard as possible to become. I feel that I have done that for myself. It is very hard to explain your ideal self to someone, because they will always say that you are being too hard on yourself; which is usually the case. With this I will try and explain what I see as being my ideal self.
Emerson states in his writing “Self Reliance”, “Trust Thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine province has found for you; the society of your contemporaries, the connexion of events” (HB 1747). I feel that this quote is one of the most interesting quotes that I have ever read. I feel that this is one of the most important parts of self reliance and truly knowing your ideal self. If you cannot trust yourself who can you trust?
Another part of what I feel constitutes the real you is motivation to better yourself. Motivation to better yourself is important because without it you will not truly care about yourself enough to keep it in shape and make yourself happy. Motivation to better yourself should not be just to work out and eat right, but also to have real relationships not only with other people but with yourself as well. You need to have motivation to do well with everything you attempt, such as school, career, and hobbies.
Believing in yourself is another part of the ideal you. I feel this is very much like trusting yourself, as if you cannot believe in yourself than you cannot believe in any other person that is a part of your life. You must believe in yourself to accomplish anything in your life such as getting a job, getting through school, and having meaningful relationships with people. If people see that you do not believe in yourself, then they will not believe in you.
I feel that it is important to be somewhat independent to be the ideal you. You should be able to be dependent on people for certain things but you should always be able to depend on yourself. It is good to not be completely independent with everything because you need to be able to depend on certain people to help you through tough decisions and tough situations.
Being confident in yourself is an important part to your ideal self. If you do not have confidence in yourself then no one will truly have confidence in you. You must be able to convey confidence in yourself for things such as work interviews, sports, meeting new people and so on.
Loving yourself is another part to your ideal self. If you do not love yourself then it will be hard to love other people. Loving yourself does not require you to be self involved, and not care about the feelings of others. Should people see that when they look at you then they will not want a relationship with you which is certainly not ideal.
Being a caring person along with taking pride in yourself is another part of your ideal self. I feel that the first part of being a caring person is to care about you. Taking care of yourself is not only for your own good, but also for the people who love you. By taking care of yourself you are also looking out for the important people in your life. Taking care of your appearance and your body with working out and eating correctly are good just a couple of examples of how to do accomplish this.
Being successful is another part to your ideal self. Everyone wants to be successful in what they do. I feel this is part of the American dream, as everyone strives to be the best they can be. If people are not are not successful, then they feel that they fall short of their dreams.
You must be surrounded only by good to be your ideal self. If you surround yourself with bad and evil you will not ever truly be happy. Emerson states “When good is near you, when you have life in yourself, it is not by any known or accustomed way; you shall not discern the foot-prints of any other; you shall not see the face of man; you shall not hear any name – the way, the thought, the good shall be wholly strange and new” (HB 1755). This quote I feel is a very important part of being your ideal self, as it is shown everyday that when people surround themselves with constructive activities and good natured people they accomplish what they set out to do. It is when people surround themselves with hatred, ignorance and malicious individuals they falter and come up short.
All in all I feel that it is important to believe in yourself and love yourself before you believe in others and love others. You need to be true to yourself, because until you find your true self you cannot allow others to see the true you.