Scott Free Thinking

After writing my book and looking back on it with a whole new perspective, I have since realized that the mere activity of collecting pieces of my life story and putting them into something that has a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end has been unbelievably therapeutic. And what’s more fantastic - it is not even really my story, but rather the story of the kids who were around me at the time, particularly the social involvement of young Cacee Kenner, who has now since moved onto do other things. The story’s common structure is one of daily life, then premonition, then an event to follow that premonition, and then it repeats. The cycle happens more and more as the book goes on and the frequency at which things occur gets greater and greater. Looking at it now from the different views I’ve learned about, like the two models of reality and the law of attraction, it is a fascinating thing to read. Perhaps the reason I enjoy my own story so much is because I know about all of the depth that is there, many people will not likely experience the same thing as I can, knowing what it was like, exactly what it was like.

So my suggestion to you, is to try doing a simple exercise. Get out a sheet of paper and write down everything that is going on right now in your life. Leave out the routine, rote details like you’re in school, you’re doing homework, or you’ve got your job, you do paperwork - unless any of it is significant, do not bother mentioning it. But the things you do want to mention, are the girlfriends/boyfriends you’ve had, your husband/wife, your recent major accomplishments, your overall mood from day to day, any fights you’ve had, mental or physical, and so on. Mark down all the events that encompass the entirety of your life, and then jump back about 5 years. Where were you? What were you doing? Were you happy? Sad? Were you with someone? Were you working the same job?

Starting taking pieces that inner-relate between the two time periods and literally draw a line on the paper to connect them. What you want to do is to take a single group of events, feelings, memories, and pieces of your life that all interconnect and you want to group them together and how they have evolved over a five year period. Think of the people that made it happen, the major conversations that you had with others that may have been life changing for you, the places you went if you traveled, and so on. Think about how all of it has shifted and changed over time. And then, if you’re willing, spend the next few months writing just a page or two a day the evolving components of that particular story.

When you watch biographical films or even read biographical books, they usually have a central message to all of them, often times it is a single struggle that, overall, someone overcame. For instance, A Beautiful Mind tells the story of mathematician John Nash who struggled with mental illness and then eventually made a recovery, winning the Nobel Prize in Economics. But do you think his entire life is told in that one book? Of course not. Countless different details were likely left out, some of them may have been important, others of them asinine.

The bottom line, however, is the central message the book intends to carry. Your story can do the exact same thing, and no matter how small you think the details might be, be aware that there is an unspeakable vibrance in every single word you speak, your every feeling, your every gesture. Maybe it sounds corny, maybe it sounds poetic - whatever the case, it’s the truth. Every single tiny move you make, every action, has an impact on someone somewhere, through both direct and indirection connections. I describe this in more detail in Connections of Social Influence.

I encourage everyone to get involved in this sort of exercise. If anyone has anything interesting to share, I’d love for you to tell me about it here!