The Story of You

Social media is an amazing thing. Through LinkedIn, I recently met a woman named Ber-Henda Williams who has made it her life's mission to empower girls through writing. Her organization, Poetry, Pages and Scribes, is now working in Detroit-area public libraries and schools, and her goal is to show 1,000 girls the power of their own voices by developing their writing and artistic talents.

I love what she's doing, and I recently made an appearance on her site as a guest blogger. After talking with her, I was inspired myself to write about the importance of creating one's own life story. Too many times, I think people want to wait until everything is perfect in their lives before indulging their passions. The problem, though, is that the "perfect" time never really comes. In reality, it is now.

Here's what I wrote (original link here: http://www.poetrypagescribes.org/?p=239):

The Story of You

Many of us go through life doing the “right” things. We go to the right school. We get the right job. We marry the right person and have the right kids. We get up every morning and wear the right clothes. We drive the right car to work, put in our eight hours, and drive home to our right house in our right neighborhoods.

But then there are those other people—the ones who wake up each morning, take a deep breath and a good look inside, and follow their passions wherever they may lead. They don’t worry about what other people think or how they will react; they simply do because they’ve come to a place inside themselves where they’ve learned to trust their inner compass. They realize their own Self is more capable of determining what is right for them than what the rest of the world dictates.

Who do you want to be?

The key to living a life full of purpose is identifying what you want your purpose to be. What are you passionate about? What is that one thing that, when you start talking about it, your heart skips a beat and you feel energized and motivated? It can be anything. That’s the beauty of humanity … we’re all different, and we all have within us the capacity to come alive in different ways.

You are creating your own life story every day in everything that you do. Your story doesn’t have to be a thriller. Maybe your story is that you are a hard-working secretary who makes people smile and raises great, well-adjusted children. It can also be something unusual or outstanding. There are no wrong answers. But you should know this: Your life story can be that you’ve found a way to make a difference, to make a positive impact on the lives of others, in some way meaningful to you.

Every passion is an invitation for compassion, to use our talents and gifts to make a difference. The challenge is to identify your own passions and make a conscious decision to use them to live life with purpose.

After all, it’s your own story. It’s time you wrote it.

Amanda Christmann Larson is Director of Compassionate Journeys, a volunteer organization dedicated to bringing resources and awareness to empower people in Ghana, West Africa. In the summer of 2012, Amanda and friends will be traveling from San Diego, California to St. Augustine, Florida with Babes Blocking Traffic to spread awareness about child trafficking. Visit www.compassionatejourneys.com and http://www.babesblockingtraffic.org for more information.