Evolutionary Philosophy
  • Home
  • Worldview
    • Epistemology
    • Metaphysics
    • Logic
    • Ethics
    • Politics
    • Aesthetics
  • Applied
    • Know Thyself
    • 10 Tenets
    • Survival of the Fittest Philosophers >
      • Ancient Philosophy (Pre 450 CE)
      • Medieval Philosophy (450-1600 CE)
      • Modern Philosophy (1600-1920 CE)
      • Contemporary Philosophy (Post 1920 CE)
    • 100 Thought Experiments
    • Elsewhere
  • Fiction
    • Draining the Swamp >
      • Further Q&A
    • Short Stories
    • The Vitanauts
  • Blog
  • Store
  • About
    • Purpose
    • My Evolution
    • Evolution 101
    • Philosophy 101

What Story Do You Want Your Life to Tell?

3/1/2013

0 Comments

 
For the last few weeks, I've been discussing the three levels of personality:
  1. Basic Traits / The Big Five (OCEAN) - Openness to new experiences, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
  2. Characteristic Adaptations - personal goals, defense mechanisms, values, beliefs, life stage concerns
  3. Life Story - past, present, and future woven into a vitalizing myth

I talked about how our basic traits give us tendencies for encountering the world, and how our characteristic adaptations describe how we define that world as good and bad and take actions that reflect those definitions. For the last level, we all grow and change in this world and encounter new environments all the time. The path that we have taken, the place we reside, and our plans for the future, all serve to build the elements of the story we tell ourselves about our own lives. For some people, they are the hero in their story - overcoming or building upon their past to sit in a place where they can launch their glorious future. For others, the villains of their past have turned their story into a hopeless tragedy, or maybe a never-ending comedy of errors. While still others lack any imagination at all about what kinds of stories they can create and end up wandering the world lost or settling for the first simple story they come upon.

What story do you want your life to tell? I now write stories for a living (available here!) and do the best I can to lead a life worth reading. Rather than spout off about any of this though while my own story is so unfinished, I thought it would be great to share some insights from a person who has not only lead a long and amazing life, but who has studied other famous lives and written extensively about them in award-winning biographies. Take a few minutes to listen to the TED talk below from historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's an amazing feast of information filled with stories of play and work and family and Lincoln and LBJ and love and loss and ambition and failure and baseball and storytelling. Oh and there's even some funny jokes from this distinguished lady about pissing and shitting and grumpy old Brits. Enjoy! And then see if you can't weave some elements of her helpful stories into your own heroic life.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to Help Shape This Evolution

    SUBSCRIBE

    RSS Feed


    Blog Philosophy

    This is where ideas mate to form new and better ones. Please share yours respectfully...or they will suffer the fate of extinction!


    Archives

    January 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012


    Click to set custom HTML
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.