Occasionally, I’ll re-read a novel I’ve read a long time ago.
I can’t do this with every book, only a few.
The ones I really get into, the characters I identify with or would like to identify with.
It’s interesting to read an epic in different points in your life.
Your response to it, and how you imagine yourself within it is much different from a Junior High School perspective than as an adult.
That’s one of the reasons classics are classics. They appeal across all times, ages, and levels of life experience.
Especially super old stories like mythology or Aesop’s fables.
They touch on the common truths of human existence. What it’s like to struggle. To fail. To succeed.
Many times two people are playing eye contact games across a crowded room.
And they are each thinking the same thing.
“I like that person. I’d like to talk to them. But I’m nervous to make the first move. If they walked over here and started talking with me, that would certainly be cool.”
Most of the time, though, nobody makes a move, and both people go home wondering “what if.”
Most people spend their entire lives like that. Waiting for some external “spark” to get them going.
Even in common stories, there’s always some external “event” that FORCES the hero onto his or her journey.
Rarely does some normal person wake up, and decide that they are going to create a brand new life.
But if you WANT a brand new life, that’s what you’ve got to do.
Remember, stories are the way we WISH life was, not the way it really is.
If they made books and movies about the way our lives REALLY were, they’d be pretty boring.
Even those “reality” shows are highly scripted. Sure, the stuff people are saying and doing are “in the moment.”
But those people are carefully selected in hopes they’ll be MAXIMUM fireworks. And they film a whole week and only edit together the best hour.
Sure, it’s great to get “discovered.” To get “picked,” but it’s not always the best strategy.
Generally speaking, in the real world, people who succeed the most are the people that get out there and make things happen.
Not those who wait for things to happen.
But you don’t have to kill dragons every day. Not even close. All you need is a huge goal, WAY OUT in your future.
And every day, simply take small steps in that direction.
Because you build a massive life the same way you build a massive castle.
One brick at a time.
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