The Protagonist Is You

The Protagonist Is You

When you write great fiction, a good technique is to make your protagonist compassionate. You want your reader to fall in love with the person you’re painting literally. To do this, this person has to have just the right amount of flaws to make him/her real, and also have some amazing hurdle he/she has to get over to find happiness. The object is to always be cheering for the protagonist even when he/she fails. But notice that the protagonist always has a goal.

On the other hand, you must write into your story a wonderful antagonist as well, because every good protagonist must have someone or something fighting against his/her good wishes. This antagonist must try to stop the protagonist from getting to his/her goal at all costs. The greater the stakes, the better the plot, the more you want to turn the page.

So, if you are the protagonist in your story of life, what exactly is your end goal? Or do you even have a goal? What are you trying to get to that seems to be insurmountable? Is it a new job, a new relationship, a spiritual life, a new home, to move to a different country, or just simply to find peace in life?

Once you discover this, also look at who and what is keeping you from your goal—the antagonist of your life. Is it real, or is it in your mind? Sometimes the greatest antagonists in fiction are shadows from the past.

The reason why this can make for a great drama is because every one of us has a past. We can all identify with a person who is trying to break free of his/her tainted background.

Then there is the plot twist. Something happens unexpectedly to change the course of the entire story. Suddenly, what your protagonist thought she was trying to achieve, unveiled something even better than imagined. Once she gets over the hurdles, she realizes that what was missing had been there all along—like the lovers who have been best friends their entire lives.

Chances are your life wouldn’t make for a bestseller. Most people’s lives are too simple to make us turn the page. But that doesn’t mean that your story is pertinent and real to the fabric of society and life. Every person’s destiny has been carefully weaved together to create a beautiful and complete story for all of us to benefit from. But why can’t you figure out exactly what the story is and how you fit into it?

As a Life Coach, I spend most of my time helping people figure out exactly what their story is, why they are their own antagonist, and how simple or difficult it will be to achieve the goals to achieve happiness.

The truth is, however, that just getting on the path to your truth is the most important part of all your work. Maybe you may never achieve your goal. But being on the road to it is what creates a forward momentum in life. So, we must take hold of our dreams and press on that gas pedal to move forward toward our dreams and desires.

If you’re not doing this, you will stay in a place of complacency, which probably included anesthetizing yourself with some kind of alcohol or drug periodically to numb your brain into one more day with no goal. Or you will fall into a deep depression that will take lots of therapy and maybe medication only to lead you back to the things that can change your life: Living it Authentically; Following your dreams; Moving from your center toward the true matters of your heart.

Try it. You’ll see what I mean almost immediately.

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Bo Sebastian is a Hypnotherapist and Life & Health Coach, available for private sessions to QUIT SMOKING, Lose Weight, New Lap-Band Hypnosis for Weight Loss, CHANGE YOUR MIND, CHANGE YOUR LIFE! at 615-400-2334 or www.bosebastian.com.

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