Acting Out Your Own Story

Source: Eugene Loh, 938LIVE, a station of MediaCorp Radio

Many thinkers and writers have likened human beings in this world to actors on a stage, this life, to one great play. But what role are you playing? Who's writing it? Are you acting out your own story? Or are you simply going through the motions in someone else's play?

We each have a set of ideas or beliefs about ourselves that define us as a central character in a "story" that we're living out. All of the elements of the story have been passed down as part of our culture or upbringing, taught or ingrained, or simply fabricated in our own minds. We then go about enacting our stories as if they were true.

The thing is, most of us don't even realise that we're enacting a story, much less someone else's story. Because of this, we're completely at the mercy of the story and its writer, how it unfolds, how we react to certain events, and the eventual course our life takes.

If we don't take the time to construct our own story, we'll continue enacting our current one, even if it isn't working for us, and even if someone else is holding the pen, or typing the keys.

So how can you discover the story you're enacting and decide if it's time to create your own spin-off?

First, assume you are in fact enacting a story. Uncover the elements of your story. Be a detective, hunting for clues. Look at all your behaviours and describe them piece by piece, until the "whole" story emerges.

Next, assess your story. Are you happy with it? What would you change, remove, or add to this story to make it more satisfying? Re-write your story - become the author of the grandest story you can envision - a story that truly inspires.

Share your new story with important people in your life. Talk about your specific role in the story and why it appeals to you. The more you talk about your new story, the more it will become a part of you.

Commit to living your new role in some way. Make at least one change that is in alignment with the new story.

Finally, explore how your new story fits into the bigger story of your family, organization, corporation, country, and the world. What contribution can your new individual story make to the bigger story?

Remember, you are the author and you can write your own story any way you wish.

Bflygal's comments:
In my own story, I will be happy no matter what because nobody owes me my happiness. It is my life, my story. And when GA takes me away from this world, I am actually anticipating it (if you think along the line that I'm forever curious, then it should not be a surprise why I'm excited at going to an unknown place). In fact, I think since young, I don't think I'm ever afraid of my own death (only afraid of my parents' leaving bah...) because of what I experienced since young.

So no, I don't need anybody's company in my last journey, esp if the person has to tell me stories and make me smile. Why not, I tell you stories and make you smile before I leave the world? And yes, I'm definitely leaving before you because it is a pact I made with my GA already. And no, I don't wish you to be unhappy at my departure. Or rather I don't subscribe to the theory that the person living is actually the more sorrowful one. Why can't both parties be happy? The one who leaves, has finish his/her job and should return to GA's arms. The one who stays, maybe he/she has not finish the job, but when done, he/she will too return to GA's arms. So why be sorrowful towards the one that left earlier?

Anyway, I'm a daydreamer (and a blogger) so story making is something I do too often already haha.