Good Life Project - What Story Is Your Life Telling?

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

There’s a line in the Good Life Project Living Creed: “Life is a story, if you wouldn’t read the one you’re telling, write a different ending.” That’s what today’s short and sweet GLP Riff is all about; the role of stories in our lives. What is the story you’re telling with the way you’re living […]The post What Story Is Your Life Telling? appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, Jonathan. So you know how I've been telling you about that little new book of mine, How to Live a Good Life? Turns out my publisher is now offering the ebook version of it for a limited time for 99 cents. Yeah, that's not actually a typo or made up number. It's not going to be that price forever. In fact, not for a super long time. But if you want to get it now, if you've been on the fence and you literally want to spend less than a buck for it, you can go get it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Nook, iBooks, and dive into it and hope you enjoy it. So take advantage of this while it is out there.

Now, on to our show. Hey there, it's Jonathan, back with A Good Life Project Riff. If your first time is today, welcome, welcome, welcome. These are short and sweet little things, usually between five and ten minutes, no more than that, where I just kind of pick a topic that I think is meaningful in the context of this bigger question of how do we live a good life? And sometimes it's something I've been thinking about. Sometimes it's a question that comes in from you, our awesome listening community. You can send me questions, by the way, you can find me pretty much anywhere on social media, just at Jonathan Fields, different variations of that, or you can send it over to support at goodlifeproject.com and it will

get to me. And I often mix in questions from our community. Today, I want to talk to you about stories and how stories weave into the idea of living a good life. I'm a little bit obsessed with this thing called story, story architecture, story craft. And in fact, stories and discovering how stories are put together and told is something that's actually getting a lot of attention these days. And I'm wondering why. And I know why I'm obsessed with it. And part of it is because I'm a writer, and part of it is because I aspire to writer and part of it is because I aspire to be a compelling storyteller. And I think I probably have another decade or two

before I get to that place. But I'm committed to working towards it because I think they're so powerful. And here's what I've seen is that life is about story. A life well-lived, a life, is a storied life. A storied life. What do I mean by that? It's a life filled with stories that you want to tell.

That when you look back, you say to yourself, oh my gosh, there are so many stories that I either want to close my eyes and reminisce, or if I turned around and told those stories, others would love to hear them. When you think about the books that you read, when you think about the movies that you go to, when you think about very often the audio, the podcast, the shows that you listen to, it's generally, you're not compelled to go there. You're not compelled entirely by the quality of the data and the research and the knowledge, the information that you're getting. As a general rule, that doesn't hold your attention for all

that long. You're compelled by the stories. You're compelled because our brains are wired to want to hear and see and participate in stories that move us emotionally. Stories have the ability to move our soul, to stir something in us, right? The nature of a story is that there is somebody who is the quote protagonist in the story. And stories are all different. But as a general rule, stories are about somebody or somebody's groups of people starting, having some kind of inciting incident, there's a problem that has to be solved. And then having some kind of inciting incident, there's a problem that has to be solved. And then having some form of experience or adventure,

meeting up with all sorts of challenges, constraints, disillusionments, meeting people along the way who become friends, mentors, lovers, partners, allies, tormentors. And then finding your way through, finding your way through, and in some way being changed by the process. And I've also wondered, why are we so drawn to want to hear and see those stories? I think the deeper answer is, and why do we remember them

once we experience them? And my sense is, the deeper answer is, we are so drawn to experience other people's stories because very often we are not living a life that is nearly as storied as we would like to be living ourselves. So instead of turning around and constructing a storied life, we look to the stories of others to give us the hit of adrenaline and oxytocin and dopamine and emotion that pulls us out of a reality where we don't feel those things all that often. And I sometimes wonder whether the more you want to transform, the more you want to, the more you feel called to experience other people's stories, the more it is a sign that you may not in fact be telling the stories that you would love to be telling with the way that you're living your own life. And that's not a judgment in any way, shape, or form.

And I'm raising my hand right alongside you because I've seen this in my life so often when I'm feeling kind of flat and I want to go out or when I'm feeling that things aren't going great, very often it's because I realize I want the hit that's coming from other people's well-told stories because the stories that I'm telling in my life right now are not the stories that are giving me those feelings, those feelings of joy, of lightness, of connection, of transformation, of liberation, of change, of growth, of meaning. So I look to other stories to get ahead of that. That's not a bad thing. I think, you know, participating and being lifted in the moment by others and learning from others is awesome.

And at the same time, come back and ask the question about your own life. Are you living a life that is abundant with stories that leave you changed? And if not, are you living a storied life, a well-storied life? And if you're not, the question then becomes, what do you do about that? And the answer is actually pretty straightforward. The answer is, huh, maybe it's time to actually start telling my own stories. Maybe it's time to actually start telling my own stories. Maybe it's time to actually start to engage in participating, in finding moments, in creating moments and opportunities,

in creating the possibilities to experience and participate in life on a level where I'm telling a story that lights me up, where I'm engaged. My sense is that the moment you engage with possibility, the moment you engage with people, the moment you engage with love, with emotion, with connection, with vital you engage with people, the moment you engage with love, with emotion, with connection, with vitality, with meaning, the stories will automatically start to tell themselves. But so often we don't do that. And we don't live a storied or a well-storied life. We live a life filled with stories where there's no narrative arc, where it starts and then the line that would define the narrative arc of stories just stays

flat. We call that a flatline story. And if it's a story that you wouldn't want to see in a movie, if it's a story you wouldn't want to read in a book, if it's a story you wouldn't want to read in a book, if it's a story you wouldn't want to hear on a podcast, and you have control over that narrative arc, even if you don't think you do, you do, you have enough control, then maybe it's time to actually change the arc, change the narrative, tell a different story. And you do that very simply by standing up and starting to engage with life rather than letting it happen. Those are my thoughts for today. Right? Wrong? I don't know. But it's something that I've really been thinking about. What are the role of stories in a life well lived.

Increasingly, I really am seeing that a good life is a well-storied life. Think about it. Talk about it. Have conversations around it. If you want, share this provocation and let it be a starting point for you to explore the stories in your own life, how you're telling them, and maybe change the narrative arc. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project.