Focus on what makes an experience matter, not the experience itself

All the myths, lore, and backstories that you appreciate were crafted carefully and thoughtfully and improved through time, just like products and businesses and relationships.

In The Wisdom of Life, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer writes, “The world in which a man lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he looks at it, and so it proves different to different men; to one it is barren, dull, and superficial; to another rich, interesting, and full of meaning. On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in the course of a man’s experience, many people will wish that similar things had happened in their lives too, completely forgetting that they should be envious rather of the mental aptitude which lent those events the significance they possess when he describes them.”

I saw an alternate version, entitled The Value of Personality: “On hearing of the interesting events which have happened in the course of a man’s experience, many people will wish that similar things had happened in their lives too; completely forgetting that they should be envious rather of the mental aptitude which lent those events the significance they possess when he describes them: to a man of genius they were interesting adventures; but to the dull perceptions of an ordinary individual they would have been stale, every-day occurrences.”

Even if you think you and your story are boring as watching paint dry, they’re not. You just haven’t done the (hard!) work of digging into your story and making meaning of it, tying it into your values and opinions and worldview, and considering how to tell the story in a way that’s interesting to people.

Do it! It’ll be exhausting and entirely worth it.

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