Using Stories for Goal-Setting and Life Planning: Write, Then Edit
Writing Your Life story isn’t just about being inspired.
Crafting your life story chapter by chapter takes commitment to a process, or at least, to a set of guiding principles or habits. Much of story-writing or storytelling involves following a process that transforms the artist into a craftsman.
I’m writing the story of my life each and every day. The quality of my life story will largely be determined by the guiding principles I follow and the habits I develop. These principles and habits should be organic enough to allow me to respond to what’s happening in the moment, but also structured enough to make sure I don’t lose sight of my story.
Some of My Guiding Life Principles
· Flexibility
· Experimentation
· Experiences over possessions
· Belonging is better than fitting in
Some of My Life Habits
· Regular self-reflection
· Time spent in nature
· Travel
Editing My Story
You can’t edit a story while you’re writing it.
Writing requires you to be present in the moment. Editing is when you have time to analyze, critique, review and adjust. Editing helps refine the initial draft of your life story into a finished product that has greater clarity and meaning.
When I take time out for self-reflection and self-development, I’m editing my life story. As I’m writing my story – living each day, going on adventures, encountering success and failure – I’m in the middle of it all, I’m too close, too emotionally involved in the events that are unfolding to assess them accurately in the moment.
I have to occasionally pause and reflect on everything that’s happened to put it in context, and determine what adjustments need to be made. Regular self-reflection allows me to mine the newly-written parts of my life story for jewels that I can use to keep creating better and better storylines.
My Daily Self-Reflection Practices
I use some combination of the following on a daily basis:
writing,
voice notes,
meditation,
quiet thinking,
listening to self-development podcasts
reading an essay or listening to speeches (e.g., Ted talks)]
So, let’s recap the steps to taking a story-based approach to goal-setting:
While it’s a bit more detailed than traditional goal-setting, I think that the outcome of the story-based approach is much more meaningful and makes me way more excited to pursue my goals.
Next, I’ll share the steps I use to turn my Life Value Map into a ‘neverending story’ that makes me feel like an overachiever even when I don’t accomplish any of the goals I originally set.
