THIS IS YOUR STORY

I once heard a presentation given by a screenwriter. He pointed out that to create a compelling protagonist, the character in the story who will inspire us and make us route for his or her success, they need to begin their story with a heroic flaw.

This flaw is something that threatens to hold them back or is perhaps the only reason this clearly good and relatable character is not yet a genuine hero.

At some point in their character arc, they will be forced to confront and overcome this flaw in order to ultimately win the prize and truly become the hero of the piece.

An example of this would be Indiana Jones having to confront his fear of snakes in order to retrieve the lost Ark (or take the leap of faith to retrieve the Holy Grail).

This screenwriter made the point that in our own lives we are often all too painfully aware of what OUR heroic flaw is. We already know what holds us back, and prevents us from becoming the person we ideally would want to be. We know in what way we fall short of being our own hero.

So what do we do?

Do we learn from the stories we love and the heroes who inspired us?
Do we face the fear in the pursuit of greatness?
Or do we put our energies into creating a life where we can avoid it, and take whatever steps we deem necessary to allow us to remain the same?

How often have we chosen to point the finger of blame elsewhere in order to explain why we find ourselves to be the victim in this story rather than the hero?

But of course, the simple fact is that we don’t get to decide what challenges life throws at us today.
We only get to decide how we respond to those challenges.
Sometimes we’ll have to face things we didn’t ever want to face and are in no way prepared for.
However, always remember that this story is your story... and you can decide to be the hero or the victim.

What will you choose today?

Tim