6 Ways to Be the Hero of Your Story

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What are you waiting for? Who or what is going to come along and ‘save’ you?

You deserve to be saved right now. Found, not lost. Your wish granted, not wishing on a star. Riding into the sunset, not pining in the castle’s topmost tower.

You are prince charming; you’re the golden egg; you’re the fairy godmother. You possess all the power you need to save your own life; to live out your existence to its most magical limits.

How?

1. Stop thinking passivity, start thinking passion

Are you letting life happen to you? Or making things happen? Take a look at your day – what have you done, actively, rather than simply reacted to, to improve, empower or impassion yourself? Focus on what you have done, and channel that positive energy into doing more tomorrow.

2. Treat yourself like a friend

If a friend was upset, struggling, or having trouble – you wouldn’t be down on them, you would respect and encourage them. Do that for yourself. Think how your internal conversation sounds, and if that's worthy of you. If it's not, change it: give yourself your best advice, and (here’s the tricky bit...) ACT on it!

3. Be creative

We are at our best when we are creating: whether that be cooking an amazing meal, composing a song, writing, making fashion statements, painting, flower arranging... Zone in on a manner of creativity that really gets you excited and start to practice it more.

Then: share it. Sharing our creative passion is what living is about, and whatever you’re looking for in life – a great new job, direction, opportunity, love, fulfilment – they’ll all arrive when you start to tangibly put your spirit out into the world.

4. Be a hypocrite

It is the fear of self-contradiction that stunts many of us in really achieving our full potential – but it is the conversation with yourself and the learning curve that ensues from that which will blow away the ever-forming cobwebs and reinvigorate you. Mistakes don't matter if they mean progress, and they almost always will.

5. Recognise that there are different sides of you:

...your proactive side and your protective side (amongst others). Each serves a purpose, but you need to learn which to listen to and when. If you’ve been invited to a concert by some new friends and your proactive side thinks ‘Hell Yes!’ – your protective side might be telling you: you’ll probably just get ignored/you’ll embarrass yourself/no one will like you/ you should just stay at home and watch a movie, that way nothing can go wrong.

It’s easy to listen to the protective side, as that is often the passive side, and therefore the easier course of action – the less risky option. I used to listen to it all the time, before I became conscious of my ability to ignore it if I choose.

6. Be a work in progress

You’re not finished. You are in a mode of constant regeneration – and that knowledge is pretty liberating. You can be whoever and however you want to be at any given moment, just allow yourself to accept the possibility. The only person really saying no is you if you decide to listen to the chorus of nos that you will, inevitably meet. My advice? Don't.

In the words of Reggie Spektor, "I'm the hero of the story - don't need to be saved."

Go on, hero, save yourself.