The Lens of Story

A powerful lens you can use for making sense of life is the lens of story. What’s especially powerful about story is that it beautifully integrates the objective and subjective lenses. There’s the objective side of a story, such as the settings, characters, and events. And there’s the subjective side, meaning your thoughts, feelings, and inner journey. How could you apply the lens of story to help you make sense of complicated situations or decisions? Here are some good questions to ask: How does this fit my overall story?Where does my story want to go next?Which decision would make for interesting story? Boring story? Imagine your life is one big story. Your story has a certain progression to it. Some next steps make sense because they fit your story. Other steps don’t make much sense because they don’t fit your story. If you view your life thus far through the lens of story, as if you’d been reading it in a novel, what observations could you make about the overall story arc thus far? When I look at my life through the lens of story, I can pick out certain progressions. There are patterns. I see a pattern in my story where I’m often tempted to pursue a heartless path that might dangle some other carrots in front of me like success or fame or money. If I chase after those carrots, my character suffers because it never turns out well. Each time my character must recognize the trap and find a path with a heart instead. Then when he follows ...
Source: Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Creating Reality Source Type: blogs