In every story, you have the exposition, the beginning
where you are introduced to the main character and their life, their family and
their friends. Then, something happens, a catalyst, if you will, a problem
needing to be resolved that leads to the rising action part of the story. This
takes up a good portion of the story, with the stakes rising higher and higher
until they reach the climax, the point of the most intensity and action for our
character, where they must act quickly in order to resolve everything. Usually,
our hero makes the right decision, and the immediate problem is resolved,
leading to the falling action, everything that happens after the climax, right
up to the resolution, where everything is sorted out, and our hero is left a
bit battered, but all the wiser and happier for it.
This is the outline for every story. And every time a
character goes through these steps, they are changed, whether it be for the
better, or for worse, they are no longer the same person they were when they
first started on their journey. The problem or problems they faced led them out
of their comfort zones, and into a deeper understanding of who they are, and what
they can accomplish , even in the worst of circumstances.
For many people, just hearing others stories is
enough. They go to a movie theatre, or read a book, and are entertained, maybe
they even think about it a bit, and then go right back to their regularly
scheduled lives. There are others, however, a select few, who are simply not
content to only hear of adventures and epic tales; they wish to have their own.
These are the people who recognize that every great story begins with a single
step. That step could be huge, like selling all of your worldly possessions to
go backpacking around the world, or it could be small, like taking a different
route to or from work one day and meeting someone new. These people understand
the concept that Neale Donald Walsch was trying to get at: Life begins at the
end of your comfort zone.
In the book The Alchemist, there is a young shepherd
boy who was convinced that he had found his role in life, his great destiny. He
had gone against his parents wish to become a priest to become a shepherd
instead and travel. But even then, he still had a recurring dream of a far off
place, and a treasure to be found. He ignored it as simply that, a dream, until
one day as he was sitting reading on a wall, an old man came and sat next to
him. He talked to the boy, introducing himself as a man called Melchizedek, the
king of Salem, and criticizing the book the young shepherd was reading. “It’s a
book that says the same thing almost all the other books in the world say. It
describes people’s inability to choose their own Personal Legends. And it ends
up saying that everyone believes the world’s greatest lie…that at a certain
point in our lives, we lose control of what is happening to us, and our lives
become controlled by fate. That is the world’s greatest lie.” He went on to
tell the boy that he was there because the boy had discovered his own personal
legend, and he was there to help him on his way. “Everyone, when they are young, knows what
their personal legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and
everything is possible…But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to
convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their Personal
Legend.”
We all have our own personal legends, our own wants
and desires in this life. While some may be truly impossible, like becoming a
cat or spontaneously sprouting wings and learning to fly, 99.9% of our dreams
are achievable. All it takes is one small step out of your comfort zone, to
step out into the world vulnerable and determined, and taking the chances as
they come. No one is stopping you from getting what you want except you. Every
day is a new choice; is this the day? Am I going to step out of my comfort zone
and let that step guide me somewhere new? It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said “Do
one thing a day that scares you.” And what scares us more as humans then
stretching ourselves out of our comfort zones?
I believe that everyone on this earth can achieve
their own personal legends, whether it be opening a bakery, or becoming a
world-traveling reporter, or finding their true love, buying that house
they’ve always wanted, achieving the perfect liquid line, or getting up the
courage to ask that one special person out, they can do it. YOU can do it. As a
wise king of Salem once said, “…when you want something, all the universe
conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
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