In What Story Are You Living Your Life?

We just wrapped up a 9-episode series on creating our personal life blueprints/mission statements. At the end of this post, I’ll share my new, condensed version of my own personal life blueprint/mission statement. Remember, once we create our personal blueprint/mission statement, it is ours to change, tweak, or rework—especially as out life and /or interests change. Likewise, we have the ability to do this same thing with our own lives. We are all a work in progress!

Our lives can change once we accept 100% responsibility for our lives and realize we have a working thinking brain that can make the corrections on this path of life we are on. God has given us free will. As I often share, I’m a bible believing Christian and believe God has a great plan for each of us if we are willing to listen. So, I encourage you to read through to the end of this installment where I will share my new condensed personal life blueprint/mission statement. And if you missed the series, I encourage you to take the challenge. Please go back and read the previous 9 posts and then create your own personal life blueprint/mission statement.

In what story are you living your life?

From this background, today we are going to look at your life: In what story are you living your life?

Whether we want to acknowledge it, or not, we are all living out our stories. We all have a set of expectations for ourselves. We see ourselves a certain way and we make decisions that match that. Some of us have never really thought about this, but it’s true. These expectations have come from past experiences, our upbringing and our culture. If you don’t believe me, do this experiment, next time you’re with a group of friends listen to the conversations. When you hear: “I’m a ….” Listen to the answer. Here’s a few ideas of what you might hear: I’m a mom, I’m a runner, I’m a hack at tennis, I’m retired and getting old, I’m an author and I’m working on my next book, I’m just getting by, life sucks, I’m a person that started a non-profit, I am just existing, I’m an empty nester, I have no energy and I’m lost, I’m a realtor, I’m just going through the motions, I can’t wait ‘til Friday. Now think about yourself, we may not say it out loud, but we have some of these same thoughts in our head. We all have stories we live in.

We are all creating and living our stories. it’s what we all do—whether consciously or unconsciously! Now, let’s look at how this can actually be a great tool!

Get out that journal. If you’re not able to do this right now, read all the way through and think about this. Then, when you can, come back to it with a pen and paper. I want you to identify your current story. Reflect on your current beliefs, values and the narratives that are influencing your life. This is what I like to call a brain dump. You might think: “Monette I don’t want to do this, this is being self-absorbed.” Don’t fool yourself, we are all self-absorbed. We are thinking about ourselves 24/7. I want you to actually get those thoughts on paper and by seeing the story you are living in and evaluate the stories. If you don’t like the story and you want to be of greater value to the people you love and care about, this exercise will help you do just that!  Ok back to the exercise, after you have done this brain dump, I want you to evaluate whether your current story aligns with your faith and aspirations.

I’ll give you a little back story about me. Several years ago, I found myself living in a story that I was miserable in. We had just buried my mom and my mother-in-law. My kids were either in college or early in their careers. I was bored. I felt I didn’t have purpose. My marriage was fine. My fun thing was I played tennis on a team but I wasn’t getting much playing time. Our house was full of the stuff we had brought from our mom’s houses after they had died—which felt overwhelming. I was not living in a great story.

If you are in this kind of story, maybe you can relate. The one thing that I had going for me was a good morning routine. I am a Christian. I was in the habit of listening to the app Abide, a two-minute Christian meditation and reading from Our Daily Bread. I wrote in a prayer journal daily. I prayed about my situation. This is what I felt God showed me: “Monette you’re healthy and you have a thinking brain, but you are living in a not so good story.” During this time, I journaled a lot. Looking back now, I was honestly writing out the story I was living in. I was very discouraged. I started listening  to encouraging podcasts and good audible books that aligned with my values and Christian beliefs. This is when I realized I had to take 100 percent responsibility for my life. If I wanted a thriving marriage, I had to change that story. If I wanted to play more tennis on a team, maybe I needed to create and captain my own team. I  found new and up and coming players that didn’t like drama tennis either and who agreed with the mission statement I created: “Let’s, play hard, have fun and let’s all get better together.”

Over time, we were able to organize our home,  get rid of  a lot of stuff to make room for our moms’ stuff (this is still a work in progress). During this time is when I started my Mornings with Monette podcast. Having been a lifelong learner who loves sharing ideas to help my friends, I wanted to share these ideas with my friends. 

God really brought me through that season. God guided me to create a new and better story! With everything I share with you, I have this underlying thought: “I would never ask you to do things that I’m not willing to do myself.” So, when I ask you “What story are you living in?” It’s because I continually ask myself the same question.

Start with What Feeds Your Soul?

Once you’ve done the brain dump and journaled your stories, here are some suggestions as you evaluate your story. I’m going to assume you are a Christian and I am starting ideas to feed your soul!

• Embrace a Christ-centered narrative.
• Explore the importance of aligning your life story with biblical principles and God’s plan.
• Do you have a solid morning routine that includes being in God’s word and a time to pray before you do anything else?
• Have you ever been in a Bible study? For me I had not been in one since Covid. I found one this spring. I absolutely love it! Gathering with likeminded women again has been incredible.
• Have you returned to church since Covid?

Steps to Rewrite Your Story

• Journal.
• Evaluate the stories you are in that you feel God wants you to rewrite.
• Pray about it and find scripture that supports and encourages you to change the story.
• Find your people to support you to make these changes.

I encourage you to embrace growth, resilience, and allow God’s grace to rewrite your story. You must be willing. This is going to take action and not just a plan. Just like God showed me: sitting here feeling sorry for myself, blaming everyone else for my situation, was not from him. He had bigger and better plans for me!

It’s important being intentional about the story you are living in. I encourage you to take action, seek God’s guidance, and embrace the journey of shaping a purposeful and faith-filled Story. My prayer for you is for you to seek guidance, clarity and transformation in embracing a Christ-centered life story.

As promised I am going to give you my shorter revised personal life blueprint:

“I am committed to living a purpose-driven life with faith, shared vision, continuous learning, and discipline. Guided by integrity, humility, and servant leadership, I aim to make a positive impact through meaningful connections and personal growth, inspiring others to reach their full potential while pursuing my God-given passions.”

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Monette hosts a weekly podcast: Mornings with Monette. She has been a lifelong learner and and appreciates the opportunity to share what she has learned–both through her podcast and here at The Best-Life Project (based on the content of her weekly podcast). Her messages are raw, honest and straight from the heart. She lives in Albuquerque, NM with her husband Leland. They have three adult children and are enjoying living their best lives filled with travel and adventure.