The way we narrate our life shapes what it becomes. So, if we can change our stories, we can change our life. I always say about my art, that it’s about the realities that we create to shape ourselves! And we do it by telling stories to ourselves.

I wanted to write a story about how today we all want to be the hero of our own story. Encouraged by fantasies on social media. Maybe I will, one day. Because it made me think about how unreliable narrators we really are. And then I remembered this TED talk by Ms. Lori Gottlieb.

Here’s what she says.

People do not purposely mislead. Most of what people tell is absolutely true, just from their current point of view. Or, as another psychologist said: “To tell a story is inescapably to take a moral stance.”

In my own words, there is no objective personal reality. Personal realities are always highly subjective. And colored. Strongly colored to our own advantage. As the Germans would say, Schade für die Tatsache! So sorry for the fact!

Ms. Gottlieb says it like this:

The way we narrate our life shapes what it becomes. So, if we can change our stories, we can change our life!

Wow. Remember what I always say about my art? It’s about the realities that we create to shape ourselves! And we do it by telling stories to ourselves. And Ms. Gottlieb continues. Most stories are about two themes, freedom and change. the desire to be free to change your life for the better. But usually, freedom comes with responsibility, often the responsibility to change. And change often means loss, loss of the familiar. People need certainty. “There is nothing more terrifying than a blank page.” (Do check out my Blank Slate project.)

“Delivering compassionate truth bombs”. That’s how she calls the way to help someone out of their narrative about themselves.

Is that what my art should do? Deliver compassionate truth bombs? Hmm. Maybe. I’m not sure. I’m not sure the public can handle compassionate truth bombs. Remember when I talked about what Jeff Bezos of Amazon said, in my story Social Reality? “If you’re the village truth teller, you might get clubbed to death in the middle of the night.”

How purposefully do you create your daily reality?

But still. As Ms. Gottlieb says, we all want to be the hero of our story. So rather, I like her way out: what do you want your story to be? That may be a solution that is easier acceptable. That’s why I often ask: “How purposefully do you create your daily reality?” To make it small and achievable, let’s start with today. Your daily reality.