The life I live has a story. It has a flow. My life is a flexible story. Sometimes I am the protagonist and sometimes I am the antagonist. At times I am making great decisions and the hypothetical audience is watching and clapping as they see these scenes of good decisions. Other times I am making the wrong decisions and the audience cringes. Either way, my life is a story. My story is a story about whether or not I am willing to grow past my hurts and fears and insecurities.

Likewise, most stories have a moral. The idea dictating the meaning of the story based on the challenges the characters face. Some stories are simple, like The Little Engine That Could by Platt & Monk. A children’s story delivering the value of overcoming challenges and the power of positive thinking. Other stories are complex with lots of different little morals along the way as different characters continue to grow and evolve over the course of the story. You might consider the original Star Wars trilogy or the Lord of the Rings trilogy as stories where different characters grow and mature over the course of the story and there is not one primary moral but many different morals as the characters mature.

The brilliant part about my story is I get to decide what the moral of my story is. I get to choose whether or not overcoming fear is going to be the moral of my story. I choose by deciding whether or not to face my fears. And, there will be a challenge after I face down my fears. There will be another challenge trying to hijack my story. When the next challenge arrives. I get to choose whether or not to allow it to control my story as well.

What is the moral of your story? Did you choose it or is it hijacking your story?

Storytelling,

–JT