It’s incredibly easy to forget that.Photo by Javier García on Unsplash

It’s not disingenuous to say that life is a story. It has a defined beginning, middle, and ending. Along the way, you have rising and falling action, meet colorful characters, heroes and villains, and everyone in between.

The story of your life does have one, single, solitary constant. The protagonist. Across every aspect of your life, from beginning, middle, to the end, the protagonist remains the same.

That would be you.

While you, the protagonist of your life experience and story, are always that character, like all other protagonists, you change.

Who you were at age 10 is not who you are at age 20. Similarly, who you were at age 20 isn’t who you are at age 30. Constant, frequent change is part and parcel with the journey of life.

That can be terrifying or exciting, infuriating or comforting, and sometimes multiple conflicting emotions simultaneously. Change can be fast or slow. Sometimes you have zero control over it; other times you can direct it.

Active conscious awareness opens the door to you taking the pen and writing your life story experience. That allows you to take some control of the protagonist.

Your hero’s journey

Joseph Campbell’s definitive work – The Hero with a Thousand Faces – coined the popular phrase “The Hero’s Journey.”

The idea is embodied in countless, timeless stories. From Jane Eyre to Luke Skywalker, the archetype of the challenges the story’s protagonist faces has matching patterns, highs and lows, and lessons from failure and triumph alike.

One reason why the experiences of fictional characters like Spiderman, Bilbo Baggins, or Ender Wiggin resonate so well with people is because of the journey they go on and the growth that ensues from it. It’s relatable because it’s not so far removed from real life journeys all of us take.

There is no certainty in life, save death. Sorry, no matter what you do, death is how your life will conclude. What happens between your birth and your death, however, is utterly and wildly variable.

You grow, change, and evolve whether you do so with open eyes and joy or kicking and screaming with resistance. Whatever approach you take to your life, there is another truth apart from the given ending you can’t escape.

You are the protagonist in your life story.

Photo by Jodie Cook on UnsplashThe protagonist is yours to empower

There are forces in the world that do not want you and me to recognize that we are our own life’s protagonists. They fear that when we realize this truth, “they” will lose their influence and false control over us.

The truth is that they do not have any control, sway, or influence unless you and I give it to them. Hence, this idea of “woke” being negative is utterly, patently false. Being awake and aware means you are the author of your story, not just reading what someone else is writing.

This can be terrifying. Now you have to be responsible and accountable for your mistakes and fuckups. Yet now you are also accountable and responsible for your achievements and successes.

When all is said and done, you alone are in your head, heart, and soul. Nobody else can look out at the world through your eyes, feel your emotions, or decide what you will value and believe. That’s not to say outside influence doesn’t impact this, but how much impact it has is on you.

Because you are the only one in your head, heart, and soul, you can change who, what, where, how, and why you are. You can write and rewrite your life experience and story because you’re the protagonist.

Your empowerment comes from using your external, six senses to gain awareness, then corroborating that with your internal knowledge of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, approach, and actions. What doesn’t suit you can be altered and changed by you.

Nobody gives you that power. You simply need to be aware of it. That’s mindfulness in practice.

You write the journey for your protagonist

Because you’re the only one in your head, heart, and soul, you’re the author of your protagonist’s story. Not enjoying the story thus far? Rewrite it.

This won’t necessarily be easy. But it is and always has been in your power to control. Not wholly, not without challenges, but that doesn’t make it any less yours.

The first step in writing your life’s story is recognizing that you are the protagonist. It’s incredibly easy not to, because of the nature of blame culture, shunning accountability, and the like. But you ARE your life’s protagonist, and recognizing this goes a long way.

Then, you must acknowledge it. Recognizing it is one thing, but if you don’t acknowledge it, you aren’t opening yourself to doing anything with it.

Once you recognize and acknowledge that you are your life’s protagonist, you empower yourself. That’s because you’ve activated your conscious awareness. Now, via mindfulness, you can make choices and decisions for where your hero’s journey takes you.

One very important caveat to all of this: You will get this wrong, face unexpected and unwanted obstacles, distractions, and issues. Some of your choices and decisions will fail you. Welcome to the human experience. Nothing is written in stone, and you can close one chapter and open a new one with new choices, decisions, and actions.

Woke bullshit? Perhaps. But I know I prefer to be the one writing my story over letting someone else do it. Don’t you desire to direct your life experience over letting someone else do so for you?

This is the seventh-hundred-twenty-second (722) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.

I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.

Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.

The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.

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