Either counsciously or uncounsciously every human and animal is living in his world of ideas. Uncounsciously most human beings make a difference between the idea of him/ herself and all other ideas. 

Inside his personal universum there is always the current idea of self (some kind of a narrative like "I am a thief" or "I am a student") and, as long as the human is not self-satisfied, there is also a future idea of the self. Massive action (+ resulting frustration) is needed to reach the future idea of self. The current idea of self is happy or unhappy etc., also some kind of narrative, the universe does not care. The pictures below show various possibilities within the total world of ideas that you are part of and speak for themselves.  The selfsatisfied/ slightly demented human will probably never find these pictures because he is the past.

The Current Idea of self is a thought complex build according to events that happened in the past. When there is no projection into the future or/ and there is no change, consciousness has become rock solid.