The Greatest Story
By: Jacob Gilchrist
Tags: Motivation, Writing Life, Entrepreneurship, Positive Thinking, Writing

Why does humanity love stories, and so keep making them? Surely, it is because we live them, to start. For every empty feeling and lonely heart there is an empathy reaching deep into the mirrors we see in characters who have felt our pain to dream and triumph as we do. The greatest among us inspire many to seek the next life hack on the blade’s edge of Occam’s razor in quirky quotes and quick fixes online. But that greatness is never found in words alone. It’s how you use them, and arrange them to form a guide to life itself.

So what’s the secret? What’s the point, the conclusion and the summary? Life cannot be boiled down to simpler truths with which you can pixie dust your problems away with the residue alone. It is the expanding of knowing and understanding that grants truth, not just the reducing of stories. That is why we collaborate, so that words are multiplicatively more meaningful by context. An emotion without a story cannot be felt. Do you doubt this? Sure, you can act well and bring your chemicals to shift and feel anything you like, for a moment. But that’s not why we feel. We are gifted with a divine compass of not just reason but significance, to each personally. Many believe significance is universal, and to a degree we all share many things. But your heart is your own, and so every story resonates uniquely to each heart and mind just as your memories share no rent with another. Even twins each shifted two feet apart most of their lives will develop unique perspectives in countless ways, as do we.

Did you know you can program your own heart to value different experiences in unique ways? It seems so obvious that when we see something we automatically think a thought and produce an emotive feeling associated. Everyone does this constantly. The gurus suggest you try to release each and embrace the silence, noticing the difference. I suggest you strategically choose not just when and how but why you feel and think those ways in response to your experiences. Most of the time, you do not need to change anything because that is just who you have trained yourself to be. Nothing wrong with that. However, if you have long felt a desire for something that evades you, it may be time to watch what happens when you do make plans and carry them out daily and weekly towards that goal. Now you can identify your character. Now you can find stories of significance that are similar, archetypally or even relatively, and see what you can learn from the perspective. If you procrastinate, you could identify with Hamlet (though his failures) learning what not to do. Better yet, read of a character who ultimately utilizes their distraction to great insight like many poets and inventors in the modern age who bucked the trends and focused on what begged for their well-deserved attention. Life is open source, and stories are the code. That is what we’re doing here, folks.

How is your story going? Maybe you’re not a savant or at the pinnacle of a field quite yet. Do you even have a specialty of choice, or a selection of favorites? Don’t worry, you’ve got this. Most people never do find this so why is this so aggravating to excel in one area for so many? Because our stories are programming us to be “perfect,” and that’s not a bad thing. It’s how we’ve gotten this far, after all. But if you’re not resonating with the archetypal heroine’s journey then seek out parallel parables to use as alternate software. Not all heroes wear capes, and many do wear masks so feel free to don the persona of any who you feel is the best suited for your life situation. If the situation isn’t ideal, you can and probably should move your physical character’s body. It’s a big world out there, and dancing on the head of a pin may sound fantastic but doesn’t make a great story.

One thing to remember is that every rising star was crafted by circumstance. That chess prodigy saw an add for a game and could afford to play, and the football star had dedicated coaches, friends and teachers, while the genius inventor actually took the time to tinker with professionals every weekend and didn’t just follow instruction booklets each time. They might have the “best” genetics in the world but without exposure to their “destined” life path they may never have known it. So put yourself out there, and try new things often and stick with what brings your heart joy! If you haven’t found it yet that just means you get to try more things and be cynical about it. Who doesn’t love an excuse to be that, right?

In conclusion, let this not be succinct and to the point but open a can of ideas for you that keeps on expanding into a new messy adventure in your life that you created. May it bring in tons of crazy people who support you in times of need and benefit wildly from your successes. Remember that every time you exchange currency that you are directly supporting somebody’s life journey, and they yours. Support always goes both ways no matter how you do it, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first. Creativity is not just mutually beneficial but an explosion of potential inspiration and activity when done right. Change the world not as a false-hope that never comes but a concrete reality of every choice you make from now on. Let the mundane miracles of a seed planted or an animal showing joy to you change your mind. Everything you do echoes forever into humanity’s future, and never stops so make something amazing today. If not for infinite future generations, do it for you. You matter in so many ways you’ll probably never even know without a fourth wall break, and that’s probably for the best.

What ten ways your story could inspire today?