Life Stories

   

After looking back on the past 25 years and seeing all the memories and experiences I've amassed, I've come to realize each of our lives is a story we are writing. As with a book, each of our stories has a beginning and an end, but our lives are written not with ink and pen, but by our actions. Every action lasts forever in time, like ink that has dried on a page, and every really significant action lasts forever in our own memories and in the memories of those who see us.

This is an analogy with serious implications for how we should lead our lives if we want to write a good story. It makes me realize just how important our choices are. They can never be taken back or altered and they affect everything to come—and you remember them. This is the greatest motivator I have ever discovered to plan ahead, to think seriously about what you will do in the future, to commit good actions and to avoid cutting corners or living for the moment.

So say a man wastes the first half of his life making bad decisions or floundering about? Do huge mistakes ruin the whole story, or do a series of misfortunes destroys the plot? Far from it! It is—usually—best if someone writes a story without serious errors or misfortunes, that has nothing but a steady improvement punctuated by frequent peaks of major achievement. However, a man who gains wisdom from his mistakes, who turns his life around and ends it in success, has still written an incredibly good story, and perhaps a better one than those filled only with positive.

The purpose of life is this: At the end of your life, to scan across those old pages and say with a proud, serene glow, “I have written a good story.”

“Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.” –Source Unknown