Be The Author Of Your Story, Not Just The Reader!
We live life.
We experience the good, the bad… and the empty.
We cope with grief, loss, and sadness.
We feel how we feel, and act and react like everything’s just a response to something else.
Cause and effect, right?
Take two people who win the lottery.
One pays off their debts, buys the house they’ve always wanted, sends the kids to school, maybe even starts investing. Clean. Safe. Sensible.
Another?
Blows it all on a yacht, cocaine, and hookers.
Both could be the best or worst thing that ever happened to them.
We all know money doesn’t buy happiness… but let’s be real, it definitely helps.
That first couple?
Maybe they were on the edge of divorce over money fights. Fixing the finances could expose deeper cracks… or heal them.
The second guy?
Maybe he’s on a one-way trip to self-destruction. One last “Hail Mary” before his inevitable end… Or maybe, when the high runs dry, he wakes up, flips the script, and turns that yacht into a side hustle — renting it out to wannabe rappers and YouTubers for a clean fortune – turning a wild mistake into an empire.
Any outcome is possible.
It just depends on how you write it.
Grab A Pen, Let’s Write!
A phrase that I use always is “flipping the narrative” I don’t know who said it or where or when I heard it. it’s nothing exactly profound or deeply philosophical but it works.
Essentially that’s what we did in the lottery examples,
we laid out the bare facts or the “what is” and then wrote the “what if’s” we could actually go further and write the “whats not’s.”
So flipping the narrative is just rewriting the outcome from what we see and changing it to where we will be and what we will see.
This will sound like a lot of advice you have already heard such as:
manifestation and positive thinking and being 1% better each day and in some ways it is a mixture of all three.
It also adds “this too shall pass.” Which is possibly why I like it, it’s quick, easy and can mentally move us forward (even if it’s just a little sometimes.)
Not Just Advice, But A Practice.
If you’re like me — and let’s face it, you’re here, so I assume some of this at least resonates a little — you’ll read this and think:
“Yea right… it’s soooo easy, isn’t it?”
Yes, it is!
…and also… no, it’s not.
How better to show this than with my current daily struggle:
To die, or not to die?
When I have these thoughts, one option fills me with dread.
The other comes with that old familiar hum — “the final answer, one last performance.”
The fact that I say it’s a daily struggle should make one thing clear:
Flipping the narrative isn’t some one-size-fits-all, cure-all, magical spell.
But let’s break it down and look at why it still helps.
Imagine a storyboard. You know, the kind they use for movies — little blocks showing what happens in each scene.
Let’s say, for me, Block 1 is:
Sitting in my flat — helpless, hopeless, broken, empty, and alone.
I can do nothing.
If I do, the rest of my blocks will just copy and paste that same feeling.
Same day. Same scene. Same cycle.
Block 2 could easily be “another attempt.”
Which means Block 3 becomes one of two things:
An intervention… or a gravestone.
And if it’s the gravestone? That’s it. No Block 4.
(Yeah, I believe in God, heaven, all of it — but even that’s a sequel, not a continuation.)
If it’s the intervention?
Then Block 4 is a hospital.
Block 5 is therapy.
Block 6 might be relapse.
Block 7 might be healing.
And so on.
That’s just one version — a heavy one, sure — but real.
What if we flipped it?
What if I chose to believe that being broken or destroyed doesn’t mean the end?
It just means: time to rebuild.
Then maybe Block 2 is something small that pulls me out of the moment.
Weed. Gaming. Music. Whatever.
(Those only work while they work, though — let’s be honest.)
But recently?
Yeah, sure, Block 3 still contains weed most days, gaming some days, music mostly always.
But it’s also been driving. Writing. Showing up — even if it’s messy.
Block 4 was me renewing my hosting for this site. — I transferred it from Bluehost to Hostinger and got 4 years for the price of one.
(Not exactly a grand gesture, but a deliberate one.)
Which led to Block 5 — realising the hosting transfer didn’t include a domain renewal… and I’d just spent all my money.
Block 6?
Panic.
Block 7?
“Fuck it. I’ll figure it out.”
Block 8 was me paying for the domain transfer and renewal for one year (it’s paid now, and the transfer is currently in progress)
And this post? This is block 9.
Not The Final Act, Just An Intermission!
I don’t know what Block 10 is yet.
Might be another breakdown.
Might be something that actually feels like progress.
Might be nothing at all — just me waking up and doing it all over again.
But for now, I’ve written this.
And that’s enough.
So… what’s your next block?
If you had a storyboard sitting in front of you right now — no pressure, no judgment — what would be in it?
Not what you wish it was.
Not what you think it should be.
What it is.
And more importantly… what could come next?
Because if you’re still here — still breathing, still reading — then your story isn’t done.
You’ve got the pen.
So grab it.
Even if your hand’s shaking.
Even if the words don’t come out right.
Even if your next scene is messy as hell.
Write it anyway.
