Your Personal Story Arc

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Big Red Car here on a 40F morning but it’s headed to 65F this afternoon. Going to be sunny which is a bit of a stretch looking at the sky right now.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and are positioned to have a Happy New Year! On Earth as it is in the ATX, y’all.

Let’s talk about that for a bit. Listen to the Big Red Car tell you about the story arc of YOUR life. Going deep today, y’all. Stay with me.

Being thoughtful

You humans, not like us Detroit muscle car beauties, have the capability to think and reflect and plan. In the end, you will live the lives that you want to live.

If you are thoughtful, then you will live a life that you have planned.

Pro tip: Not a bad idea to put your personal plan in writing. Here is a white paper about life planning and goal setting for the CEO, Merry Christmas.

Life Planning and Goal Setting for the CEO

The first step in dealing with your personal story arc is being thoughtful. If you can’t be thoughtful, go play some Free Cell for a couple of hours. It’s OK, you’re not ready yet.

The story arc

When you have been thoughtful and given consideration as to how you intend to live your life, you will begin to develop a “story” of your life.

How does it begin?

How does it end?

These are the easy considerations though the ending is a lot more difficult than the beginning.

The story arc of your life is defined by the ending. How are you going to get to the end? What steps are necessary? How do I do it?

There are no easy answers, you just have to take a stab at it. While there are no easy answers, there are also no wrong answers. And, guess what, you can change the answers as you begin to progress along your personal story arc. [Wow, Big Red Car, this is easy. Is it supposed to be this easy? Yes, it is.]

The mechanics

Once you define the end of the journey — successful, enlightened, startup CEO who builds a great sustainable company which survives her? Or, maybe, serial entrepreneur who starts and cashes in many companies creating great personal wealth which is then deployed to change the world in a meaningful way. Or, gentle woman who marries a great guy, has their babies and raises one who cures cancer. You get it, right. It can be anything.

Dream big — small dreams and big creams cost the exact same. Why not dream big.

Big dreams, even when not fully accomplished, result in big accomplishments. Even when you catch you heel on the high hurdles of life, it is the height of the hurdle that is important.

Think, define and write down goals, flesh out your personal story arc, get some and then rinse and repeat many, many, many times.

What have you got to lose? Nothing.

This year, 20125, is going to be YOUR year, tomato. It is going to be a great year. It is going to be the best year of your life. Make it so.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I”m just a Big Red Car. Ahh, but I’ve got a story arc in mind. Get some, y’all! Get yours and a little bit more cause you can, tomato. You really can.

 

5 thoughts on “Your Personal Story Arc”

  1. I’ve found this approach to be especially helpful in two ways.

    1. It is a way to work up the courage needed to take a challenge that may make your life more meaningful.

    2. During points along the arc when you find yourself alone and thinking “oh shit – what did I get myself into?” it is helpful to remember who and what you are truly working for.

    • .
      Having a bit of a plan — not a 123 page plan but just something that seems to have taken a bit of work and is thoughtful — can be used to “course correct” along the way and, yes, it can be revised in its entirety. Why not?

      Having a plan, is the key to it all.

      BRC
      .

      • Defining your arc and the plan to get there are a bit different to me.

        The arc is personal. It is the vision. It probably doesn’t change much until its done and the process of defining a new arc begins again.

        The plan is the strategy used to realize the vision. A plan is improved and modified as required in order to “course correct”.

        • .

          We are talking about two different things — not wildly different but a little different.

          The “story arc” of which I speak is your PERSONAL story arc and not that of the company you run.

          When you use the term “vision”, I am thinking Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics, Objectives, Values and Culture as it pertains to your company.

          The use of the term “story arc” is intended to be personal. That is why the document embedded is “Life Planning and Goal Setting for the CEO” — it is personal for the CEO.

          I should have been a little clearer about that.

          The goals for the CEO are evaluated on a regular basis — some are accomplished, some are modified and some are abandoned. The process of setting goals is continuous.

          The story arc of one’s life begins now and ends somewhere in the future while the goals are the stepping stones to get to the planned end.

          Again, bit more clarity is always useful.

          BRC
          .

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