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Lifestyle Design

Who’s Writing Your Life Story?

Everyone has a story to tell about their life. And we’ve all met at least a couple of people that seem to have had lives filled with all sorts of interesting sub-plots. Two mates of mine in particular seem to have accomplished more in a lifetime than I had ever thought possible. And by “accomplished”, I don’t mean it in terms of making their mark on society or completing some great project or having a stellar career. I mean they have just done such a wide variety of things in their lives and have such amazing stories of adventure to tell that one can only dream of perhaps living just half as interesting a life as they have led.

The problem is that the story of their lives, our lives, everybody’s lives has to be written by someone. Most people, me included until a couple of years ago, choose to have their story written by their careers, their family and other random people. Whilst it’s great to have outside participation in our lives and our stories (we are after all social creatures), we can’t let others be the authors. Contributors maybe, but we have to write our own life story!

I think some slip even further than this into the realms of unconscious passive living. That is, the story is just being filled with a bunch of blank pages because the owner is just driving along, asleep at the wheel, not even knowing that there is a story to write! It’s being written, but it’s empty and they don’t even know it. I want to help these people (if they want help).

So, if I’m writing my own life story, don’t I owe it to myself for the story to be interesting, occasionally exciting, full of wonderful characters, romance, adventure, discovery, self exploration and a dash of drama?

Yes, I want my story to be one of those good ones, where my attention is held from start to finish. Boredom begone! To ensure my story is one of those good ones I have to make the effort to write it myself, write it with creativity and passion and learn not to beat myself up when the story takes an unexpected twist. The twist may just end up being the best part!

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

7 replies on “Who’s Writing Your Life Story?”

What do you propose for making sure you write that interesting story — to the extent that you have control that is? 🙂

I was listening to one of my (formerly) favorite songs this morning…it was my theme song for grad school. Something had to get me through it! One of the lines was “it doesn’t happen to you, you happen to life”…in fact, that was the headline of my old blog.

I think the great thing is that even when we attempt to direct our lives in certain directions (to obtain goals, experience certain things and places, etc.), we reap the benefits of both planned and unplanned rewards. So far in Oz I’ve seen and done things I wanted and expected to do, and I’ve also had some experiences I had never anticipated but have been positive. And of course the negative ones make for good stories too.

The only answer I can give is that I plan to be mindful. Perhaps I sounded like I was going to be a little too controlling over my life and not allow things just to evolve… I just don’t ever want stagnation and being mindful should counter that.

The unexpected stuff really is exciting, interesting and a little unsettling. I’m all for it! I want to be easy going whilst still living life purposefully. And the funny thing is, these aren’t just words. I believe it! 🙂 Not sure that everyone does…

I think it could be difficult balance to strike (being easy going and purposeful — or maybe just for me because I *am* so planful by nature). And no, I didn’t think you were wanting too much control. Just pointing out that we can direct some things but obviously not everything!

Definitely difficult and it sounds like you’ve given it a bit of thought… Would love to hear more! Hopefully I can get some pointers next week.

A nice reminder. It’s true that we do write our own stories and if you only live once, you have to make the most of it. I always remind myself too that I’m living MY life- not someone else’s. While I appreciate input and opinions, ultimately we must choose what is right for ourselves.

Yeah, it’s very interesting. I thought about the life story thing in the context of two friends who have had a great range of experiences over their lives and always have a story to tell about how when they did this or that. A lot of the time it sounds like they’re reading from a novel. And then I started thinking about my own life and how I could live as interesting a life as them. How could I make my life story as interesting as theirs? Well… There’s only one way and that’s by writing your own story and not letting it be written for you by being passive. 🙂

I’ll take a look at you video when I get near a computer.

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