How to Be The Main Character in Your Life
You wake every day wishing you were happier, more successful, free, but instead you are stuck in a perpetual cycle of mediocrity.
You go through your day with no deeper purpose behind your actions. You go to work, do what needs to be done, go home, watch TV, then go to bed. It’s all surface. A cycle that you are all too familiar with.
Occasionally, you get hit by a spark of inspiration for something, but it comes and goes so quick you are left questioning yourself, “What am I doing? Is this everything there is to my life?”
You are not alone.
Life is a force that drives you and me and all the others towards unknown interconnected futures. Most have no clue where they’re heading. Some are passengers while life takes control of the wheel. Passengers in the dark.
But you, what if you’re not a passenger and is the one behind the wheel instead?
It is your future after all. The unknown is your light.
If you think about it and stopped right now to focus intently, you can catch a glimpse of your unknown. You focus enough times it starts to feel like you’re already there. You have the power of being able to visualise where you want to be in life one day.
This vision that lies within your mind and heart, however, is not tangible until you make it so. It’s a vision for now. It’s a concept of your future. It’s not set in stone and could change. And this vision gets clearer the more work you put into knowing it.
Picture this
The ground shakes. You can hear a rumbling in the sky. You look to see but it’s too bright. There’s dust everywhere. Sparks of light. The wind is howling. It’s getting louder. You don’t know what’s happening. The noise and light become unbearable, so you pick up the pace but then, everything stops. A person. It’s you. You are looking at a better version of yourself. Fit, nice clothes, looks happy, oozing charisma. That’s a nice car.
That’s what your vision is like.
It doesn’t just appear instantly, there’s a build-up of momentum that happens first, there’s confusion, there’s a chaotic feeling, you feel lost at first, everything doesn’t make sense and there’s a loud, annoying voice somewhere telling you to run.
This momentum is your purpose. When you have a vision, there’s no denying that you also have a purpose. Your purpose is to make that vision a reality. You can’t do it straight away though. It takes time, it ensues chaos. Other people often stop in their tracks when the chaos start. It’s too much. There’re so many possibilities. And then they go off and run away to choose the path of least resistance. Which to their defence, isn’t the worst choice, but if you want success, it just isn’t the correct choice.
You’re one of the few who wants success, realise that you don’t have just one purpose; you have a lot of purpose. And each purpose that you serve are like peels of onion that you remove each leading you to your highest purpose. The core of your being. Your light. Your success.
When does this momentum start then?
Well, as silly as this sounds, it started when you were born. But lately, instead of gaining more momentum, it stopped. It hasn’t progressed. Why? Because no one told you about it. You’re unaware. Instead, you were taught to forget about your momentum, your growth, and instead, help build someone else’s. Sound familiar?
This doesn’t mean that everyone lied to you, and you should now just think about yourself. No, this means that from now on, instead of solely working for others’ dreams, you need to work on yours.
Now that you’re up to speed, here’s the beginning of your life. The one where you’re the main character.
Action.
First, you need to learn to have a vision. You start by facing your own chaos, your problems, and the things that clutter your mind. Your fitness, your nutrition, your habits, your insecurities and your spirituality. These are the things you have control over. Your goal is the find the roots that create problems in these aspects of your life and then you implement solutions.
You need to face the confusion and tell that voice that wants you to run away to shut up. You need to wake up and do things with your purpose in mind, to solve the problems in your life.
It’s not going to be easy; it’s going to be challenging and the challenge is what will make it worth it. You do it one at a time and slowly but surely. You don’t want to just uproot the surface then leave the roots to flourish again.
As you progress, you gain deeper awareness of yourself. You catch things you’ve never noticed before and your process becomes quicker.
After some time, you move on onto more complex problems, your relationships, your search for success, your freedom. These aspects involve not just yourself but others as well. When others are involved, things get complicated and being able to navigate that space takes time and effort.
The challenge when you start facing your problems come from your thoughts. Your pre-conceived ideas. “This is not easy; I should just give up. I can’t go on, I’m not strong enough. I need a break.” This is the voice inside of your head, but this is all that there is to it, a voice. A thought. These are all just concepts that layer on top of your actual reality. This voice was given to you by society to keep you from seeing your true power. Your potential. When the voice tells you to run, run towards it and face it. After all, not feeling strong enough just means you need more practise, difficult challenges are just an opportunity to grow, and failing just means you have more to learn.
Remember, your actions and sensory perceptions in the moment are what make up your experience. What you are experiencing right now is all that there is to what is real. Not “you’re weak” “you’re a failure” or “you should give up.” When your actions are aligned to what your vision is, nothing else matters but that.
Your actions are what ripples across your life until you realise your vision. Not your thoughts and most definitely not that annoying voice.
Your future is an experience you haven’t experienced yet. The present is the experience you are in right now. What you do in the present ultimately affects what you experience in the future.
Like a domino effect.
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” – James Clear, author, Atomic Habits
Your vision is the concept, your purpose is the inspiration, your action is the experience. The only way for you to get an idea of who you are going to be is to act in line with your vision. At the same time, you must learn to find beauty in not knowing fully who you are going to be and find solace in the process of doing so. The process isn’t linear, it’s a maze of ups and downs and lefts and rights.
Now go
Learn to see your vision, and act accordingly. Start by solving your problems and do things with purpose.
Do all of these and your life will change. This time, you won’t wake up wishing you were happier, more successful, or free. This time, you will wake up knowing you already are.