The other day, I watched Stranger Than Fiction for the first time. I found the plot of a writer dealing with writer's block intriguing as she stumbles over how to kill off her fictional character Howard Crick. The problem with this is that Crick is actually a real person who finds his life suddenly being dictated by a narrator with a British accent.
As a writer, it was an amusing concept to see unfold on screen, sprinkled with some laugh out loud moments. But after viewing the film, I thought, how often do we have the sense that our lives are out of our control? That things are just happening to us, rather than we shaping our actual plans? When the voice or voices of discouragement, dissent or discord whispers to you that the vision is impossible, and you should resort to something less than the grand plan you intended, what is your response? Do you acquiesce to a fatalistic mindset and let the voices of negativity win?
Ideally, the answer to that would be No, you fight for the vision, you fight for your dreams, you fight for the plans you've purposed to pursue. But fart too often, most people have a fatalistic mindset because it disguises itself as the safer route. And for awhile, that might look true. It's after all, the path of least resistance.
But in the long run, it's the most dangerous route. Because it's actually the path that destroys a dream that could have been achieved. In the end, those are the types of regrets that are most difficult to bear.
As a writer, it was an amusing concept to see unfold on screen, sprinkled with some laugh out loud moments. But after viewing the film, I thought, how often do we have the sense that our lives are out of our control? That things are just happening to us, rather than we shaping our actual plans? When the voice or voices of discouragement, dissent or discord whispers to you that the vision is impossible, and you should resort to something less than the grand plan you intended, what is your response? Do you acquiesce to a fatalistic mindset and let the voices of negativity win?
Ideally, the answer to that would be No, you fight for the vision, you fight for your dreams, you fight for the plans you've purposed to pursue. But fart too often, most people have a fatalistic mindset because it disguises itself as the safer route. And for awhile, that might look true. It's after all, the path of least resistance.
But in the long run, it's the most dangerous route. Because it's actually the path that destroys a dream that could have been achieved. In the end, those are the types of regrets that are most difficult to bear.