25 May Find happiness and live a great life by…writing your own script
I'm reading a wonderful novel at the moment ("Stonemouth" by Iain Banks) and I wanted to share with you this great passage…
I suspect we all sort of secretly think our lives are like these very long movies, with ourselves as the principal characters, obviously. Only very occasionally does it occur to any one of us that all these supporting actors, cameo turns, but players and extras around us might actually be in some sense real, just as real as we are, and that they might think that the Big Movie is really all about them, not us: that each one of them has their own film unreeling inside their own head and we are just part of the supporting cast in their story.
Maybe that's what we feel when we meet somebody we have to acknowledge is more famous or more charismatic or more important than ourselves. The trick is to know when to go with the other player's plot line, when to abandon your own script – or your thoughts for what to improvise next – and adopt that of the cast member who seems to have the ear or the pen or the keyboard of the writor/director.
Reading this last night it just hit me…that's what living a happy and good life is all about. That's what we all need to do for more happiness and satisfaction in life.
The "trick" is to know when to trust ourselves to be the star of the show and when to defer to others; when to take centre stage and look after ourselves and when to step back and allow others to shine. Finding this balance is surely one of the keys to happiness and to happy relationships.
What do you think? I'd love to read your thoughts and comments HERE on The Happiness Institue's Facebook Page