"In the end, we'll all become
stories." – Margaret Atwood
Humans are storytellers, a fact I've
mentioned many times in this space. As English Professor, Jonathan
Gottschall, explains in The Storytelling Animal, stories make us
human. We love make-believe, shape everything from sporting events to criminal
trials into narratives, and Gottschall theorizes that we use stories to prepare
us for real life events. Is all the world really a stage? Maybe so.
What about your story? Would you live
your life differently if you knew someone was going to write about you? What
would you want as the lede in the story of your life? Thanks to social media,
we’ve all gotten used to posting what I think of as our highlight reels (and
ignore or pretend the outtakes didn't happen). What would you want captured by
a skilled writer, or what would you submit as your greatest hits?
That likely depends on how you define
success. Is it a great job with financial security? A beautiful house, or health
for you and your family? How do you define happiness? Does what made you happy
twenty years ago look the same or different today?
It's an odd thing for a writer to
contemplate being written about (for me anyway). But asking myself the above
questions, I can say how I define happiness has definitely shifted over the
years. As far as my highlight reel, getting paid to write is certainly part of
it. But what has become even more important is settling into a comfort in my
own skin and truly being grateful for all I've been given.
Maybe it's as simple as leading with
kindness and gratitude, and then you can be sure your story will be a good one.
