What’s your story?

(photo by Felixco, Inc.)

We all have a story.  When someone ask you “what’s your story”, what do they mean?  Your story is not only about your past, but your present and future.  I recently started reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller (a book suggestion from Kevin Miller at Free Agent Academy among others) and the main point of the book is story.  What is your story?  If you are a parent, what part are your children playing in their stories?  The quote that started me thinking was on page 51; “She’s not a bad girl,” my friend said.  “She was just choosing the best story available to her.”

We often hear horror stories of teenagers and their behavior.  They rebel, they don’t listen, and they do all manner of other bad stuff.  Some get into drugs, some get into the wrong crowd, some just experiment with strange behaviors and clothing.  As a society, how do we view those young people?  Strange? Trouble makers? Bad?  What are we teaching them with those labels?  What roles are we placing them in?

If you hear encouragements that you are special,you are great, and you can do anything, for long enough you start to believe it.  What would you believe if you heard that you are strange, a trouble maker, or just bad?  For the teenager trying to find his or her place in the world, the only story they hear is negative.  They choose the best story available to them, but that story is negative.  What can we do as parents and society in general to make that story positive?

Justin Lukasavige at CoachRadio.tv is a coach.  More importantly, he is a storywriter.  He helps people write a better story for themselves and their businesses.  How much better would your life be if you had someone to help you write your story?  Famous people often employ ghostwriters to make their life stories or book ideas more appealing.  Instead of using a ghostwriter at the end of the story when we share it, what if we get help while we are writing our story?  Even if we don’t get help writing our story, how much better would it be if we actually paid attention to the story we are living?

At then end of your life, are you going to look back and be happy with the story you lived?

When your kids are grown, are you going to be proud of the story you helped them write for their lives?

What is your story?