Article in brief: The writer explores living an authentic life and draws an analogy to an individual being the star of the movie. This article is about living a life of purpose and choice where we are present and conscious of our life as it unfolds. Starring in your life will leave you with a sense of awareness and a new perspective on how you choose to live each moment leaving you feeing empowered, conscious and serene in the knowledge that you can be the Star from this moment onwards.
The day every girl dreams of is her wedding day – a day when she is the star, the center of attention, the belle of the ball and the fairest maiden of them all. It is a day that comes with detailed planning, mood swings and tantrums if any detail is not to the standard of the bride’s vision on her special day. Have you ever stopped to think why it is that we as women place so much emphasis to our wedding day?
I found myself thinking about this recently when my mother decided to show my wedding video to my sister-in-law (my youngest brother was recently married). As the images of my husband and I flashed on the TV screen, I contemplated this and tried to recall how I felt on my special day a little over six years ago. I found myself smiling, remembering the happiness I felt, the specialness of it all. I wondered what it would feel like if I could capture that “special” feeling and experience it every day of my life.
As I pondered over this and re-evaluated where I was versus where I wanted to be with regards to my personal journey, I stumbled upon an episode of Oprah Winfrey with Dr. Phil McGraw discussing the idea of “Starring in Your Life”, which means being the main character or movie star of your life. As I listened to them speak about knowing what you want, having a plan for yourself and working towards honoring what makes you happy, I realized that this was at the core of the “wedding dream”. We grow up knowing what we want for our special day, and when the time comes we plan everything down to the smallest detail till our special day when we live out the experience that we envisioned for ourselves.
Now imagine if we did that our whole life and approached everything we do as we would our wedding day? We decide that we will be the main character, the star, and we work out a plan that helps us achieve the vision we have for ourselves as the star of our movie, called “My Life”. How different would our experiences and our journey be? I certainly feel that it would be more authentic and that living my life from this space will be living on purpose by honoring my soul and spirit through the fulfillment of my vision for myself. Just thinking about it makes me feel empowered and in control. I would assume a movie star who decides to direct their own movie would feel the same way; and would have a sense of fulfillment from taking a script and bringing it to life in a way that pays tribute to the story that the main character is telling the viewer.
So what is the wisdom behind this analogy? It’s very simple really – Dr. Phil refers to it as having a plan for yourself and knowing what you want and what makes you happy and going after it. He says that failing to be the star of your life and failing to plan will mean that you will be part of someone else’s plan. It’s a simple decision to be the main character and have a clear awareness that this is a daily choice. We were created special and God meant for all of us to shine. That’s why we each have a unique fingerprint, so we would stand out.
Approaching life from this space makes us open to receiving the joy in life and means that we are in alignment with our authentic self and our life-purpose. What a wonderful feeling of fulfillment! It certainly means that the story of our life will be so much more interesting as it unfolds and that is something each and every one of us can decide on from this moment.
If you are unhappy in a job, then that becomes your part-time occupation, and after work your full-time goal is to find a job that makes you happy. If you have had a dream on the back burner for a long time then now is the time to bring that to the forefront and focus on it and plan the details just as you would for your wedding day.
I decided to be the star in my life because I know that being happy and fulfilled will mean that I am a better wife, a better daughter and a better person in all my relationships. What I receive in feelings of joy from honoring my vision for my life will in turn enable me to give so much more to those around me.
My wish for you is that you make what remains of 2014 the finest days of this movie and end it with a bang because we all know it’s the ending that makes the movie special. I definitely believe that each individual is blessed with potential. I trust that the moment you decide to be the star in your life, your brilliance will shine through and greatness is your destiny.
I love this! Someone once told me to follow this "movie" approach, and it has stayed with me since. I mostly try to remember this approach when I'm going through a difficult time and I tell myself that this is just a part I'm playing, and I go in, get the job done, and get out. It really helps to separate yourself from the difficult times.
I am so glad you like this Bahar. Sometimes we just need a reminder 🙂