Imagine A Better Life Story
You have permission to rewrite the script.
What if we understood that our lives are a story we tell, and we have both the ability and the permission to rewrite it?
What would be different? The answer is— everything.
If we were actors in a movie, we would receive a script to memorize. However, almost every day until filming was finished, we would get revised scripts written on a different color of paper than the previous one, so we would know which one was the new script.
When we write books, we edit them repeatedly. We submit them for review to others, and we rewrite the story based on the feedback we receive. We change the title and the cover, all to improve the experience of the story.
Isn’t it funny—and not in a good way—that we are so willing to rewrite scripts and books, and yet we are so often stuck in the stories that define our lives?
Our stories are primarily written, directed, and produced by others.
First, they are told through our surroundings, the life we found ourselves in as children, and the stories told to us by our family and friends about who we are, based on their stories, which were also told to them and accepted.
Then we surrender our imagination to entities like the media, who, for the most part, don’t imagine better stories for our lives but instead rewrite them for the worst, not better, and we agree with the rewrite.
Instead of deciding if we really want to be that character, or if we like the script, or imagine a better story, we simply agree to what was written for us, and do our best to thrive within it.
Then we repeat those stories, with very few changes, for the remainder of our lives as if they were true.
However, given that our lives are a story, we have many other options.
We could rewrite the script at least daily.
We could edit the character called us as often as we wish.
We could change the title.
We could update the cover.
In the series of books called The Lensmen, written in 1939, writer E.E. Doc Smith creates worlds, universes, and characters far beyond what we now experience so many years later.
I marveled at his imagination and wondered if I could imagine something so detailed and complete.
The answer is yes, I could, and you could—because we did.
We call it our life story. However, unlike an exciting book, it is very unimaginative.
Once, after purchasing a new computer for myself, I cleared out all the bookmarks on my old laptop to give it to a family member.
What I didn’t realize at the time was the account synced to my other computers, so all the bookmarks I had accumulated over the years vanished on all my computers.
At first, it was disturbing. Then, it became freedom.
I could start over. I could choose what was currently relevant.
Instead of having to search through all that history to find something useful, there was no history to stop my current freedom to choose anew.
In life, we keep so much history about ourselves that combing through it to keep something of value before we change feels much too hard.
Life scripts don’t often change unless forced to, and characters remain the same throughout the years.
Every day, I hear someone, and sometimes myself, say that they are a certain way and that things always work in a specific manner because they fit our life story.
Goethe said, “Few people have the imagination for reality."
Imagine reality as big R reality, where the divine is the author, director, and producer of all that exists; where everything moves in perfect harmony, beginning and ending with omnipresent good for all equally.
If we would stop believing what we can’t do, did do, or will do and instead let go and let ourselves be guided by the master director and creator of all life, even what appears as our human stories would take on a divine cast, with what others might call miraculous results.
We, however, would know that miracles are actually the law of divine omnipresent good in action, and we would see them constantly in our lives.
Imagine the difference it would make if we could imagine our story dissolving and settling into this story, even just a little bit each day.
It just takes letting go of limited perceptions and stories and practicing imagination, and then all of our lives will synchronize with our upgraded story and characters.
That sounds like freedom to me!
Here’s my book on becoming an Imagination Master. Watch for the class coming in January.