How to Shape Your Life's Story with Your Brilliance

How to Shape Your Life’s Story with Your Brilliance

How to shape your life? What is your life’s story – the story of your life in the making? What are you going to look back on in the last few minutes of your life? 

Sure, we do not control everything. There are many things in life where we have little to no say. For example, 

  • The economy – each individual has little influence on it. 
  • Politics – Our role as voters is critical. Yet, most of us have little influence after we cast our votes. Unless, of course, you decide to be active in politics.
  • Relationships – To some extent, we can choose the people around us. However, we can’t control what someone else does, says, or thinks.

That said, our day-to-day experience in our lives IS under our control. As Jack Canfield, author of “Chicken Soup For The Soul,” says, E+ R = O. That is short for:

Event + Response = Outcome

What Outcome Do You Want? 

This conversation brings up a big question: What outcome do you want? 

  • What do you want your life to stand for? 
  • What do you want to see when you look back at your life?
  • What do you want to have experienced?
  • What do you want to have contributed?
  • What will have made your heart jump for joy?
  • Who will have felt your love?
  • Who will have loved you – not just in the good days, but in the tough ones, too?
  • Whom did you serve?
  • Who and what will you think of with gratitude?

It is almost like writing your eulogy. 

Now, there is a thought: You can design your life.

Perhaps you have seen the board game “Game of Life”? Our son Dylan and I have played it at times. You get to make some decisions. 

  • Do you go to college? Your choice influences your career choices.
  • Do you get married? Do you have kids? Do you invest in real estate? 

In the game, the number of kids is purely by chance. Hopefully, we are more deliberate in most of our choices.

Dylan and I quickly decided the game needed more options than that. We invented an entrepreneurial track with business options. We wrote rules about what income we would get each time we hit the “payday” field on the game board.

In “real life,” of course, we have many more options. But just as that game board had rules, we run our lives with rules, too. We are aware of some of them. Others guide us silently from the subconscious mind. What do we think is possible? What don’t we consider as possible?

Does My “Brilliance” Figure Into My Life Design?

The conversation around your “brilliance” (short for your unique expertise, experience, and wisdom) is relevant here. What do you do with your brilliance? What impact do you create with it? What satisfaction and joy do you generate with it? How does it feel?

Use Your Brilliance To Shape Your Life’s Story

You were not born by accident. I encourage you to tap into your brilliance and think about how best to use it to shape your life story. 

That also includes what brilliance you leave behind for others to use when you have moved on. By “moving on,” I don’t just mean death. I also suggest you consider what you leave behind when you stop doing something you were in charge of doing. I mean, how do you pass on brilliance to others in any environment (Business, non-profit, public office, family, friends)?

The Key Takeaway

Shaping your life’s story – and leveraging your brilliance as part of that – takes forethought. 

  • It takes taking back a step and looking. 
  • It takes creating a design. 
  • It takes asking yourself: What outcome do I want, now and long-term?

I’m Curious

  • How do you shape your life’s story?
  • How do you pass on your brilliance to others?
    • Do you pass it on 1-on-1?
    • Do you use systems? If yes, which systems? If no, how do you make sure, your brilliance is not lost?

Dr. Stephie

P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!

Stephie Althouse

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