The Brink of Chaos

Scripting Life

Have you ever considered how the various roles in your life mimic a screenplay?

A friend of mine is teaching me his method for Designing a Balanced Life. This week, we discussed the roles that each of us play in our lives and how they interact. Previously, I’ve considered my various roles, but I found his method more effective: instead of only naming the role, he introduced the analogy of planning your week as a way of scripting life among the various characters that represent your roles.

In this context, your roles transcend a simple name; instead you flush out each of these roles as characters in the script of your life. Just like you get to know characters on a sitcom or in your favorite novel, so the roles in your life have their own unique aspirations and personalities. When your roles are working in concert, your life is a well written drama: They work in concert when the director directs.

I find that planning your days or weeks as though you were directing your drama compelling, and I thought you might benefit from it as well. Let me know what you think.

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Matthew

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2 responses to “Scripting Life”

  1. C. Hamilton Avatar
    C. Hamilton

    Slightly different than your point, but, you might be interested to know that there is a book called “Life: The Movie” – however, its essential thesis is that our propensity to view our lives as a screen play is a function of the narcissistic nature of the culture. Or to put it another way, he diagnosis how “entertainment” as effectively “mediated” society.

  2. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    There is no doubt that mass media has had a dramatic effect on how people see their life. From the reviews, it sounds somewhat similar to Entertaining Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman that I found to be extremely insightful into the effect of mass media on the epistemology of the populous.

    My point wasn’t so much that we should see our lives as a drama per se or live in a fantasy, but rather if we consider the various roles we play in our lives to a greater depth than simply naming them, it creates a more cohesive view of how our roles play together.

    Life should not be segmented. Each part effects the other parts and by integrating them and understanding their integration, it provides a clearer picture on how to bring our values to bear as we plan our life.

    It’s a pretty interesting reference though. I’ll look at it deeper.

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