Unassigned
I like to consider myself a person comfortable with change.
I have lived in many places. Been in and out of many jobs. Experienced more highs and lows than a roller-coaster.
But lately I realize that just because you are familiar with change does not mean you are comfortable with it.
In fact, I would say it is rarely, if ever, comfortable.
Donald Miller addresses this idea in his latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years:
“A general rule in creating stories is that characters don’t want to change. They must be forced to change. Nobody wakes up and starts chasing a bad guy or dismantling a bomb unless something forces them to. The rule exists in story because it’s a true thing about people. Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable. And even if they secretly want for something better.”
So true, right?
We will plant ourselves in mediocre and dissatisfying soil just to hang onto comfort and safety.
But the real point of life, Miller suggests, is the same as the point of any good story: character transformation.
But here’s the catch. Character tranformation, for most of us, comes from ugly stuff like overcoming conflict or triumphing over hardship.
To really experience a transformation you have to deal with crap like beating the odds and finding ways to persevere amidst pain.
Damn.
It’s true though – as much as I wish it weren’t. I have seen it in my life time after time. The deepest lessons I have learned have been born through the fire. It is a reoccurring theme that’s as predictable as a wedding reception playlist.
Right now, for instance, all I want is for something, anything to feel normal, safe, comfortable. All I want is to plant myself somewhere, anywhere so I can rest for a second. So I can just stop learning all of these lessons.
But if Miller’s theory is right – and I have a sinking suspicion that it is – and the way to live a good story is to overcome conflict and embrace change head on, then bottoms up.
Because I don’t know about you, but I want to live a good story.
And maybe if I’m lucky someday I’ll get to tell it.
