There is this great article over at Skool of Life called “Lessons I’ve Learned in a 1000 Days of Blogging.” I can’t stop thinking about one of his points, “Live a Life Worth Writing About.” I know we all need to clean out our closets, but isn’t there more for me?

Then I started reading an amazing book called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  I had NO idea what this book was about, but for whatever reason, I grabbed it from my palatial pile and dug in.  A similar theme came up: living a life worth writing about.  Essentially, Donald Miller writes about how our lives are just stories that we are writing every.  At any point, we can change the story, or make a new story all together.

Found here

Now, I can’t stop thinking about MY story.

What is my story?

Is it a story worth writing about?

Would people want to read or watch my story?

If I had to write the rest of my story, how would I write it?

This really isn’t an exercise in self-pity.  I have no interest in feeling badly about what I have or haven’t done so far.  It’s purpose is to remember to participate in my story more:  it is unfolding page after page and I am the one writing it.  I may as well make it a good one!

I know that I can get complacent and fall into habits that make for a very boring story.  Who would want to watch a show about list, errands, busy work, hours on the computer, and a girl staring off into space thinking about what she needs to get done.  Not me.

If I allowed a camera to follow my every move for the world to see, how would I want my story to be told?  It would be a constant reminder that I am an active participant in my story, and every moment I have a choice.  I imagine that I would live differently.  Not because I would want to portray someone I’m not, rather, I would want to portray the best of me.  The sides of me that gets lost amongst the silly stress of soccer practices and school emails.  The camera would be that whisper in my ear that I can be an amazing story.

I know that sometimes it would feel forced or fake.  I would have to consciously stop myself from yelling at my dog or talking to my kids in a snide tone, and it would feel like acting. BUT, I would still be writing a page in my story, whether I was acting or not.  And, acting turns into habits if you do it enough, so eventually I would become the story I wanted to write.

So, I decided to pretend this week – maybe this month – that my life is being filmed.  There are cameras in my kitchen, car, following me in the grocery store….reminding me that I am constantly writing my own story.  Do I want it to look like hours on the computer, telling my kids to get out of the kitchen, being in my own little world so that I forget to make eye contact with a stranger?  Or do I want it to look like smiles, laughter, and human engagement?

How about your story?  Are you playing out your best side?  Or, have you let yourself get lazy and fall into bad habits?  Maybe you forgot that at any point you can change the direction of the plot.

EVERY moment you are writing another page.  I bet you don’t want it to be a boring book of “could of’s” and regrets.  Wake up to your story and start writing it! Don’t let habits and inattention do the writing for you!  Shed that old story, let go of what you thought you had to be, and start becoming the character that you would want show to millions on TV.

And, then remember to laugh at yourself you you make a mistake, because every good story has humor :)