You're the main character of your story! You get to write it!
You are the sum of what you have done up until now in your life…your good deeds, adversity, relationships, education, travel and jobs have shaped you. You may think you had no control over who you are. But that’s not quite right. As you look back you can see how you became the person you are.
“What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.”
~Buddha
It’s as if life is a book and you are the author of your life. Which character are you? Are you the leading man/woman? The best friend? The villain or the Super Hero? Maybe you’re just the understudy watching the show and waiting for your big chance. Think about what you would like to be and write that part for yourself. You may be just acting at first but as time goes on, your part in life’s novel will become your reality.
It’s tough to change and get past that chapter you keep re-reading! It’s tough to add a new positive habit into your life. Start small… as Lao Tzu says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
• First, take a look at your story. We are all told stories throughout our lives that we still believe about ourselves today. Is it your mother or father’s voice you’re hearing? Maybe a teacher told you that you could or couldn’t do something. Were you told that you weren’t creative? It’s time to replace that narrator’s voice with your own and write your story in the first person.
Joseph Campbell, mythologist, lecturer and author first coined the phrase, “Follow your bliss.” He wrote:
“If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are — if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.”
• Second, ask yourself these questions to understand your myth or story:
Who were you? What childhood stories were impressed upon you? What were your favorite games? What did you treasure in your youth? What is enshrined on your mantle, hung from your rearview mirror, taped to your refrigerator door? What lies forgotten in the basement? What’s secreted in the attic? Whom do you aspire to be? What new adventures do you envision? What face do you hope to see in the mirror? What’s set upon your metaphoric altar, emblazoned on your bumper, pursued in your fantasies?
These questions (from Joseph Campbell’s website) will help you to re-envision your story.
As Joseph Campbell said,
“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
So put on your cape and go out into the world and start being the Hero of Your Own Life. Re-write the story of your life or add a new chapter and become the main character! Start today, and become the person you want to be.
Here’s a great positive affirmation for today to help you think about making yourself into the person you want to be tomorrow.
Your affirmation: Today I am deciding who I want to be in the future. Today I will start to become that person.
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