That Story You're Telling...
Our life is a story, and every day we get the opportunity to continue writing this story. As the master storyteller of our own story, we get to guide people through the adventure of our own lives.
Our life is a story, and every single day we get the opportunity to continue writing this story. As the master storyteller of our own story, we get to guide people through the adventure of our own lived experiences. Every single minute of the day, whether we choose to, or circumstances compel us to, we are constantly telling this story to an audience, real or imaginary. As we write and tell our story through our work, health, leisure, hobbies, spirituality, relationship with family and friends, sometimes we realize that there are certain aspects that could use some improvements. Often times we get the opportunity to re-write those paragraphs, and re-tell them with a sense of pride, hoping that our audience will be as wowed and appreciative as we are excited. Sometimes, we don’t get that luxury.
We are all storytellers, only that some of us are better at it than the rest of us. We know people whose stories are beautiful and authentic. Each time we see or listen to them, we enjoy the way they manage to weave the different fabrics of their lives into this one colourful masterpiece that has the capacity to capture our imagination and admiration for ages. Their successes add brightness and sparkles to their magnificent story, and their failures, difficulties, fears and life struggles form those shadows, contrasts and midtones that add dimension and embellishment to what would otherwise have been a flat two-dimensional painting. They manage to use the low moments of their lives to create an interesting masterpiece that holds us in awe. Looking at them, listening to them, we have the intellectual appreciation of the challenges they have faced (or are still facing), and the obstacles they’ve had to surmount (or still struggling with), for every life has its own fair share of difficult burdens. But somehow, every encounter with them leaves us with this amazing feeling of happiness, optimism, inspiration, boundless positivity and hope. They are so fun to be with. Their stories become this genuine interesting movie that we know we can watch over and over again, and enjoy it each time.
How come their stories manage to be this engaging and uplifting, and ours seem to pale in comparison? You see, my friend, the difference is in the intentional and deliberate efforts they make to write and tell their stories. Your life is capable of being amazing, but perhaps you are sleep-walking through it like it’s a monochromatic, badly arranged theatrical performance that only serves to remind us of the things we chose to forget. Your life is a gem, bright and sparkling with your amazing accomplishments, shaped, polished and strengthened by the difficulties you’ve faced, and resplendent in its reflection of the beauty of the world around you. Why are you not telling the kind of story your life deserves? And why are you not putting the effort to write that story every day, so that the gem becomes even more splendid, magnificent, brilliant and breath-takingly beautiful? Why are you choosing to hide your radiant, awe-inspiring and spectacular story under the bushel of your laziness and complacent mediocrity? Let it fly! Decide today that you will be deliberate about how you write and tell your own story.
I have found that the better stories are the genuine stories, those ones that don’t seek to hide the flaws, fears, difficulties faced by the storyteller; those ones that don’t fake it for the false applause of a faceless audience. Let’s own our mistakes, acknowledge that we are a work in progress, and continue to put the effort to write a better story through our thoughts, words, actions, emotions and interactions with people and situations.
As you decide today to be the master storyteller of your own life, be interesting. Seek out creative ways to write and tell your story. Write a story you will be proud of. You, above all, will be happier for it.
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