Sparkle by My Life Story

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

What is the story of your life? I find this a fascinating question as the more I work with people the more I see how we create narratives to make sense of our lives and then start living according to them. Although I must admit it’s more difficult to clearly see the narrative of your own life in comparison to the lives of others. With this in mind, you might see a little more of what I mean in the lyrics of this week’s song, Sparkle by My Life Story.

The greatest living singer, stuck inside a damp bedsitter.

How many people do you know who feel they have talent, but due to their circumstances will never be able to use them to be successful? It’s always someone else who is to blame. You know the script; I have talent, but things never work out for me. Or, if I was someone else / somewhere else / didn’t have my luck, then things would be different. Underpinning it is always the same response, it’s not me that’s too blame for my situation but someone else.

A party full of great pretenders; the champagne wasn’t chilled such a dreadful oversight. Oh why?

Similarly, how many people do you know who no matter what will always make a crisis out of a drama? No-one’s lives are perfect, and perhaps people sometimes pretend they might be more than is justifiable, but for people like this even the smallest of bumps is typical of what happens in their life. The underpinning narrative; it’s always me this happens too, not other people. There’s nothing I can do about it.

This is not to say people don’t have different or difficult circumstances. Some people do have access to more privilege, more resources, more opportunities. But there is a reality to our circumstances which we must accept and grapple with as a starting point if we really want to move forward in life. When we do this, we can begin to focus on the things we do have in life rather than the things we do not have, and it is this that is the starting point to recognising our own inner resources:

Standing on a gold mine, I could make it all mine all mine. But I don’t want your money just your…

Having talent or ideas counts for little until we recognise it’s not just what we have, but what we do with it that counts. And sometimes, to try to uncover the stories we create in our lives to stop us moving forward we need to work with others to make the uncovered visible.

If you took my hand would I still be blind?

Need some help uncovering your life narratives? Why not consider booking an appointment with the author, Dr Dave Wood?

PS … Thankyou Mr Stevie Tye for this week’s song choice.

Taken from the album: