The Movie of Your Life
If you have read this far, you must be willing and eager to take control of your own destiny and write the story of your life with intention. You are ready to take deliberate action and are wondering where to begin this journey of self-discovery. I caution you that the road is not easy nor for the faint of heart, but I will guide you each step of the way.
Step 1: Imagine there exists a movie series of your life in which you play the leading character. It is easy for you to play this role because you have been doing it effortlessly without much thought or intention since birth. What will the title of your movie series be? What is the genre of the movie series? Is it an action movie, romantic comedy, sci-fi, thriller, adventure, tragedy or does it simply defy categorization?
Step 2: Now imagine that you get sick (perhaps with COVID-19) and you are unable to continue to play the leading character in the movie series of your life. You will have to bring in a famous actor to play your part. Who will you choose?
Step 3: Now imagine that this actor has never met you and doesn’t know anything about your life. How will you describe the leading character in the movie series of your life so that the actor can play you with authenticity? What are your strengths and gifts, faults and insecurities? How do you see yourself? What do you think about the way you look, dress, think, feel? What do you value, invest in, protect? What are your deepest secrets? How will you answer the question, “who am I?” with sincerity and accuracy?
Step 4: Now imagine that you are also the director of the movie series of your life, and you now have the task of evaluating the character sketch that was just created in step 3.
Three questions that are critical to ask in evaluating the character:
1. Assuming that creation of the character sketch resulted in a number of descriptive adjectives, would an objective person describe those adjectives as true to the character or do they just feel true to you since you have been playing this character from birth? I might feel smart for example, but an objective IQ test could pull fact from the fiction. Objectively, I might accomplish quite a bit in a given day and still feel lazy. It is important to acknowledge and validate what feels to be true but is also important to take these feelings to the court of objectivity. What is really true about how I describe myself?
2. Who assigned me these adjectives? Are these adjectives that I believe to be true (often in spite of evidence to the contrary) descriptors that I actively pursued or are they labels that I have passively collected over a lifetime? Have I allowed my parents and teachers, friends and enemies, doubters and haters to define me?
3. Acting upon the authority granted to you as the director of the movie of your life ask your-self objectively, “do I like this character for the direction that I want my movie to go? Do I enjoy the person I currently believe myself to be? If not, what would I change?
So now what?
Once one has begun the journey of answering the question “who am I?” the next logical question to ask is, “How do I get from where I am and whom I believe myself to be, to where I want to go and whom I would like to become?” Most people don’t know how to make an action plan for self-development and personal achievement. Others simply aren’t willing to put in the effort. Are you willing to put in the work?
