Motivation Story
"Write Your Own Book"

A motivation story from the "Lessons from a Baby" series.

The first picture I ever took of our son, Shiza, was of him in the labour ward. As he lay there I started thinking about him and his life. A lot of questions went through my mind in a flash of a second. What would he be like? What school is he going to go to? What career will he choose? Who will he marry?

A host of other questions went through my mind. At that time, the possibilities were endless. He had the potential to be so many things. The world was wide open before him and the possibilities endless. I thought how sad it was that as we get older, our possibilities seem to get less and less.

His life that day was a blank book. The story was yet to be written. The plot was not yet laid. Anything was possible. It could be a romance, an adventure, a fantasy, a tragedy or a comedy! It was blank. Just the cover read “The Life of Shiza.”

It also occurred to me that at that moment he did not hold the pen. His mother and I did. We had the responsibility of writing the first few chapters of his book. We were responsible to setting the mood and scene of the book.

To no small degree, we were responsible for the plot because the first few chapters of a book are very important in establishing the plot. It seemed such a huge responsibility. I was pretty confident that we would be good parents, but I also thought of the possibility that we might not. What if we totally messed up the first few chapters? What if they were filled with stories of pain, grief, abuse, neglect and low self-esteem and all those bad things.?

I was sure that that wouldn’t be the case with Shiza because we trust God and know that he will show us how to bring him up well. But, for so many people, it is the case. Many in their adult life are still haunted by the horrid stories their parents wrote in their books. What is the answer for them?

I also thought that at some point he would grab the pen from us. Or if we were good parents, we would hand over the pen to him willingly and he would have the responsibility of writing his own story. He would be ready for it if we prepared him well.

Unfortunately, that is where it goes wrong for a lot of people. Their parents continue to write the story for them even in their adult life. They did not learn to take responsibility for their own lives. Worse still, if the parents want to hang on to the pen and continue to dictate to their children what they should do when they are grown.

In other cases the pen is handed over, willingly or through ignorance (which is no defense), to friends and spouses and employers and so on. Either way, the one whom the story is about is not the author. He is a puppet dancing to the puppet tune.

Never heard of the puppet story? It goes something like this:

Get a good education…choose a good secure career…get a higher qualification…get a good secure job…get married…have children…be a good employee and rise up the ladder...it will only take a few decades…have more kids…live within your means and be content with the little you have, better days will come, just keep wishing… retire… haven’t saved enough money?...no problem, your kids will take care of you…be frail and old and hopeless and broke and then…die!

That’s the typical puppet story – and that’s the best case scenario. Of-course, it does come with some minor variations!

Motivation Story - THE LESSONS

You were born with endless possibility and potential. That potential is only limited by your thinking.

While you are not responsible for what happened to you as a child, you are responsible for what happens to you as an adult. The first few chapters, good or bad, were written for you. But now YOU must grab the pen and write the rest.

Take responsibility for your own life. Create the story you want. Live your dreams.

Do not get stuck and live your life in the 3rd or 4th chapter because of the hurtful things that happened in the past. It may not be easy, but YOU can overcome them and write a beautiful story for yourself.

If the story has been all bad to this point, you can still give it a happy ending. It is never too late as long as you are breathing. Even the last chapter can be the only happy one. It’s not how you started, it’s how you end that matters.

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If you enjoyed reading this motivation story then you would also want to read this great story on birthing your dreams

Do you have your own motivation story to tell? Then go to Motivation Story - Lessons from a Baby and share it! You might have learned something interesting from your child or someone younger than you that others might find helpful. Go ahead and share your motivation story.
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