It can be interesting to think of ourselves as two people, and we often do it without realizing it.
I’ve shared before how I often use that to my advantage by having the “other” Mickey deal with certain things. It’s a slippery slope, as if you put too much on your “other” self then you’re setting up for a disaster when those things arrive. For the most part, though, I like using my “other” self to do some things.
There’s also times when we simply refer to ourselves in almost a third-person kind of way, as shared by Edward Slingerland in the book “Trying Not to Try“:
Colloquially, we often speak of ourselves as if we were split in two: “I couldn’t make myself get out of bed this morning,” “I had to force myself to be calm,” “I had to hold my tongue.” Although we use such phrases all the time, if you think about them they’re a bit weird. Who is the self who doesn’t want to get out of bed, and what is its relationship to me?
The question of “who is the self doing those things?” is an interesting one indeed. I find that to mostly just be a weird expression, but Slingerland is right that it’s strange if you think about it too much.
I’m careful with how much work I put on “other” Mickey, and I’m thankful to whichever one of of me is the one that wakes up easily with the alarm every morning.
