View your Life as One Big Story

View your Life as One Big Story

 

I’ve read a lot of autobiographies in my life.

Do you know what autobiographies and fiction books have in common?

 

The ups and downs.

 

If you want to see this in action, read the book, Pizza Tiger.

This is the autobiography of the founder of Dominos.

 

Up and down, up and down.

A good moment followed by a bad moment.

His life was a story.

 

I have a habit of reading 1 hour of nonfiction followed by 1 hour of fiction every day.

One day, right after reading a nonfiction autobiography, I opened a fiction book.

‘Strange,’ I thought.

 

We often think of fiction as “fake.’

But not quite.

Fiction and nonfiction have a lot in common.

 

What is a Story?

 

A story is an interconnection of ideas designed to make a point.

Most stories have a lesson, but stories can also be purposeless too.

The lack of purpose is the point.

 

The story often has ups and downs.

Humans process information via stories.

When we have a narrative to grasp into, we can properly contextualize the information about our lives.

 

Stories can be used to teach, entertain, teach and entertain.

 

Why It’s Smart to View your Life as a Story

 

Imagine if you read a fiction book where only good stuff happened, would that be fun?

‘No.’

Why not?

‘Because it wasn’t entertaining!’

Why wasn’t it entertaining?

‘Because there was no bad stuff!’

 

Exactly.

For fiction books, we willingly invite in bad stuff.

The worse, the better.

 

In life, we will have bad stuff.

We default to dealing with bad stuff with a deflated attitude.

 

But if we view life as one big story, then we will embrace the bad moments.

Sort of like how we embrace the bad moments when reading a fiction book.

We know bad moments are not the end…

 

Good stuff is on the way.

 

Stories Turn Us into a Systems Thinker

 

I remember one time I was stuck in traffic.

It was so annoying being in that traffic jam!

I was supposed to have gone with my friends to Orlando a few hours earlier but was told to stay late and work.

 

By the time I finally arrived in Orlando, it was dark.

I wanted to go home and sleep.

 

I parked super far away because the lot was filled up.

And I walked into the apartment, exhausted.

 

Once I was at the party, everyone told me to turn up with them.

They didn’t know the hell that I just went through.

Everyone ignored my problems.

 

The only person who listened to me was the birthday boy himself.

He knew how to make someone feel heard by zoning in on the important details.

This was not a regular guy; he was the mythical hypeman.

 

I wrote about the hypeman story in my book, Word Play.

In the future, when I’m stuck in traffic, I think:

‘Hm, is being stuck in traffic going to set me up for a lesson like that hypeman story from the past?’

 

When you get in the habit of viewing your life as a story, you’ll notice a lot of coincidences.

What are coincidences, really?

Unexpected patterns that mainly matter to you.

 

You become hyper-aware when you view your life as a story.

And coincidences rain upon you …

 

How to View Your Life as a Story

 

To view your life as a story, adopt a content creation practice.

 

When you create content about your life, you are forced to turn yourself into an object.

Normally, you view life from the first person’s point of view.

When you create content, you view life from the 3rd perspective.

 

Once you create content long enough, you’ll see your life resembles a movie.

  • There are different settings.
  • Different characters.
  • Plot twists.
  • Conflicts.
  • Lessons.

Etc.

 

You can easily share stories about your life without making it too personal.

Just share the lessons that you feel comfortable sharing.

 

The more you turn your life into a story, the more you will help others as well.

You’ll see that others are going through the same problems you are.

 

Book Analogies & Life

 

I’ve published a couple of books in my life.

I’ve been stunned to see how many phrases that we use for books can easily be applied to humans.

 

For example.

A book has a book cover and a manuscript.

 

I view the human body as the book cover and the mind as the manuscript.

 

When you have a primitive view of the mind, you think the mind is stored in the head.

But when you view humans as books, you’ll see the mind is spread all throughout the human.

It’s the manuscript of a human.

 

Another saying is:

  • Start a new chapter in your life.

 

This is a beautiful saying because it prevents you from having a fixed view of your life.

You know that when you don’t like one chapter, all you need to do is flip the page.

 

There is the phrase:

  • Write your story.

Rather than being a passive observer, be an active creator.

 

Never judge a book by its cover.

 

Don’t discriminate against others.

Judge them by the content of their character rather than the things they can’t control.

[Side note: I believe in judging others by things they can control. Like hairstyle, weight, and clothes.]

 

Book analogies work beautifully with humans.

 

We all need mental models to process life.

You can view your life as a simulation.

You can view your life as a test.

Also, you can view your life as one big story.

 

Ultimately, we all need to find ways to deal with the ups and downs that life throws at us.

How you deal with the ups and downs will be up to you.

 

The more I read autobiographies, the more similarities I see between nonfiction and fiction.

Our lives are the greatest stories ever told.

 

For more insights into storytelling, check out the Art and Science of Storytelling book.

Ebook

Paperback/Kindle

Audiobook

 

– ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥

Share This On:

JOIN THE ARMANITALKS NEWSLETTER

Level up your communication skills with a new email everyday at 7pm EST
SUBSCRIBE

LEVEL UP MENTALITY : A GUIDE TO RE-ENGINEER YOUR MINDSET FOR CONFIDENCE

Armani Talks: Level Up Mentality : A Guide to Re-engineer your Mindset for Confidence - Book By Armani Talks

BUY ON AMAZON

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

close-link

Join the
ArmaniTalks 🎙️🔥
Newsletter

Stay updated with all latest tips , tricks & strategies to build communcications skills.
SUBSCRIBE
close-link

close-link

DOWNLOAD FREE

Get the Free eBook by signing up below.​
You can unsubscribe anytime
close-link
Build communication skills with daily tips
Subscribe
Join 10K subscribers
close-image

JOIN THE ARMANITALKS NEWSLETTER

Level up your communication skills with a new email everyday at 7pm EST
SUBSCRIBE