Edit Your Life Story Wisely

As a child, I watched a memorable segment on ABC’s, Behind The News.

A TV crew filmed a 45-minute ferry ride from Circular Quay to Manly. Later, two teams were tasked to edit the footage into a 1-minute clip. One team was asked to portray the trip as a joyful adventure; the other, a miserable misadventure.

Both videos were “true” but told vastly different stories.

We too are all continually editing our reel of memories, re-composing our lives.

We only ever recall tiny fractions of our waking life, considerably less than 1.0%. If you don’t believe me, try this short experiment. Choose someone you know very well, a spouse or a sibling. Think of all the specific memories you have of them. It should be years of experiences and events, right? But just try to fill a 3-hour speech with material and see how you go.

We all heavily edit our memories to tell ourselves stories about our past, our relationships, our mission and so on.

If we edit well, our stories are happy and self-empowering. If we edit poorly, our stories are unhappy and disempowering.

All this editing matters immensely because memory is identity; and identity is destiny. Therefore, what we choose to remember and what we choose to forget are among the most important decisions we make.

Edit wisely.