A Story Framework

See Your Story is a seven-step approach to seeing your life as a story, seeing what your story is, and living your story. These steps are to be used both in this order and non-linearly:

  1. See your life as a story 

  2. See yourself as the storyteller of your life

  3. See who you are through telling your story

  4. The story you’re telling yourself 

  5. What is your story telling you?

  6. Not knowing where your story is going

  7. Live your story 

1. See your life as a story

Let’s say, when you’re born, you begin telling a story with your life that has never been told before. This means everything that happens in your life is a part of the story you’re telling. Every story is different. This step is about choosing to see your life as a story.

2. See yourself as the storyteller of your life

A story becomes a story in the telling of it. Whoever tells the story will make the story what it is. You’re not the story you’re telling with your life; you’re the one telling it. This step is about seeing yourself as the storyteller of your own life, consciously engaged in the creative act of living (rather than a passive participant in it).

3. See who you are through telling your story

A story is both the things that happen in it, and also how someone tells it. When you tell your story, you see yourself: who you are, how you’ve got to where you’ve got to, and how you’re telling your story. How you tell your story is as telling of who you are, as the things that happen in it. This step is about telling your story, so you can see yourself, the story you’re telling with your life, and how you’re telling it. 

4. The story you’re telling yourself

When something happens, you tell yourself a story about what is happening to you. When you tell yourself a story, you see the story you’re telling. This means the story you tell yourself is the story you see. This step is about choosing to tell yourself a different story, or, to tell the same story, differently, so you can see yourself and the life you’re living, differently.

5. What is your story telling you?

Things happen in a story; what happens in your life is how your story tells you things. When something happens, ask your story, what are you telling me? Listen to your story, and it will tell you where it wants to go. This step is about seeing what your story is telling you about where it wants to go. 

6. Not knowing where your story is going

When you see life as a story, you have to let go of knowing where your life is going. (If you knew, your life wouldn’t make a very good story). A story doesn’t want to be told where it’s going; it wants you to go with where it’s going. Your story knows where it’s going, if you let it. This step is about letting go of your need to know, so your story will let you in.

7. Live your story

Let’s say, we’re each born to tell a story with our lives. This means your story is the life you’re meant to live. Living life as a story means living the story life wants you to tell. This final step is about seeing the story you’re meant to be telling with your life, and living your story.