Are You Living Someone Else’s Story?
People enjoy a great story. They enlighten, educate, and are often entertaining. Through stories, we learn of the greatest triumphs and failures of the people we admire. When you want to find courage, gain wisdom or discover solutions to challenges, you may turn to a story for guidance. The most important story that you need to re-read and examine is your own.
Who Created Your Narrative? (Your Story)
Consider this, your story defines who you are, the quality of your decisions, and sets the boundaries in your life. Your narrative not only determines the quality of your life but also determines the legacy you leave behind. Have you ever taken a moment to consider if your story is genuinely yours or does it belong to another?
You were given your name and raised in environmental surroundings that you didn’t choose. You didn’t select your parents, family members, or economic status. The roles you play, rules you live by, interactions with others, and your worldview were all influenced by external situations. If the factors which make up your identity were not of your choosing, there’s a strong possibility that you aren’t living in your authenticity.
Why Am I Always Experiencing This? (Your Theme)
As you navigate the paths of your life, have you ever questioned why you experience certain repetitive events? For example, do you always choose the wrong acquaintances? Are you frequently unhappy with your life and periodically having to start over? Do you find it nearly impossible to sustain yourself? The answers to these questions lie within the theme of your life.
Before I understood my purpose and began to change my life, it seemed that nothing I tried to do worked. I experienced failure on many levels. I had terrible relationships, awful mentors, and the worst support system. I always felt like life was a constant battle. It seemed as if the story of my life was to be defined by struggle and destined for mediocrity.
The theme of your life’s story reflects the overall meaning of your life. It’s the message that you stand for and defend. It conveys your core values and showcases what you represent. Many times we adopt the theme of our families. Many people live and die and never wonder if the meaning of their lives reflects the blueprint in their hearts. It’s time to take a magnifying glass to the pages in your life and see if it’s the theme you desire or if it’s time to switch things up!
What Is This Happening To Me? (Your Plot)
The chain of events that unravel in your life is associated with the story you tell yourself. These events have a cause-and-effect relationship many times seem to spiral out of control. It feels as if the plot of your life is to constantly suffer, bump into problems, or experience bad luck. Others you know seem to have the Midas touch and always seem to find success. It’s sometimes frustrating and very confusing.
One of my personal experiences similar to this occurred when I was in the military. I relocated to a new duty station. The first day on the new base, My supervisor had given me a thousand-page report, an old typewriter, and an old monochrome computer system. He said that my job was to comb through this report and manually type letters to every person in that report to resolve a particular issue. Instead of torturing myself with that archaic way of doing things, I went to the library, got a book on basic computer programming, and wrote a program that managed this task for me very efficiently.
When my supervisor saw what I was doing, he told me that I was wasting government time and that if I continued, he would write me up. He behaved this way for months. He even began to taunt me for trying to improve an outdated process. It seemed as if no matter what solutions I thought of, he was determined to create roadblocks for me. Ever been there?
You may accept things as unchangeable and allow them to permeate your life because you have only learned how to address them from the mindset given to you by others. You could have come from poverty, suffered hunger as a child, or endured abandonment. These events seem to set in motion a pattern of circumstances that ultimately result in you continuing to experience similar situations throughout your life.
These conditions exist because they are a result of actions, which are associated with belief, which ultimately originated from others. If you didn’t have good examples of successful people, you have adopted poor time management, conflict resolution, and money management skills that result in you repeating the same mistakes. Fortunately, you can course correct.
Why Can’t I Escape This? (Your Environment)
The environment you were raised in shaped your state of being like nothing else. If your surroundings were unstable, insecurities, anxiety, and emotional turmoil could plague your soul. You may be hypersensitive to your surroundings and live in a constant state of panic. Unfortunately, a lot of these elements were out of your control.
I remember growing up as a young child in a bad neighborhood. There were drug deals, shootings, and violence that happened daily. The bus ride to and from school seemed like two hours of pain and misery because of the bullies who would pick on anyone who just tried to sit quietly. Think of how those surroundings impacted the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of me and my peers.
As a result of your environment, you tend to carry the associated emotions into adulthood and deal with or avoid situations based on how they shaped your mentality. It’s not until you can change your environment and reexamine its impact upon you that change can occur. Regardless of your life’s past theme, plot or setting, you can start over and write a new story that supports your life’s purpose and begin to experience a new way of living and being!
Your Next Chapters
Now that you understand the elements that have defined who you are, how you think and your state of being, it’s time to get a blank page and re-write your script. You can create the life you desire and experience the happiness you deserve once you take the pen of your life and write a new story.
Become Your Editor
Changing your narrative starts with taking responsibility for your own life. No matter where you are in life today, you can change and move your entire life in a better direction. It doesn’t matter what circumstances permeate your life or what your past may have been. You may be in the middle of the worse scenario you’ve ever faced. You can change yourself, your environment, and your thinking and shift things in your favor!
Forgive your past and any associated circumstances which have kept you trapped. Examine who you have become and see if it is an accurate representation of the life you desire. Start to notice how you deal with people and situations in your life. Take account of your emotions when problems surface. Notice the people, environments, and beliefs that have supported the wrong version of your story and start to cut them out of your life or make revisions.
When you define your own identity, establish new beliefs that support you, and create an environment that causes you to flourish, your story will inspire, encourage and make you the example for others to create a new chapter in their lives!
About The Author
Melvin D Nix is a spiritual teacher, author, and motivational speaker. He currently hosts a weekly broadcast called “Putting On The Pneu You” (pronounced New You) where he teaches how to apply universal spiritual concepts and principles in an easy to understand format so anyone can apply them and see tangible results in their daily lives. PneuYou.com
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