Comments on: Is Your Life Story Boring?

By: cring

cring — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:40:03 +0000

Its life and life only. People can have an interesting life despite their social skills. Some people may not accept others depiction of a deep or meaningful conversation. My advice to anyone… Don’t get a pointless job… Get a job that means something to you despite the earnings. Live simple, simple, simple, understand others, realize how insignificant humans are and how complicated we have made life. Turn of the news, read. Quit your shit job and live.

By: Vanman

Vanman — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:12:01 +0000

Personally I find that the opposite to the scenario above occurs – the things which seem mundane in my life appear to be interesting to other people. Either I have friends who pretend to be interested, or they genuinely are interested in my day to day life…either way, I’d still like to change things because from my perspective, my life really isn’t very exciting.

By: colin

colin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:34:35 +0000

@Andrew: You make a very good point. Maybe the question should have been ‘How many people do you know who have ever thought about what they want out of life?’

@Will: Indeed! It’s quite a bit harder to tell interesting stories when you’ve lived a relatively dull existence. Finding the situations that lead to the stories is at least half the fun, in my mind.

J.D.: It definitely helps to have a positive outlook on things when negative experiences rear their ugly heads. Knowing that each and every one is just another sub-chapter in your exciting memoir does help, however

Speaking of which, how about a choose your own adventure memoir? Would anyone buy it?

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:13:35 +0000

I’ve always been a fan of choose your own adventure books and in life that’s true too.

It’s about what happens to you, what you make happen, what you choose to focus on, and how you choose to respond. My worst vacations ended up being my greatest stories, which ended up being my greatest adventures, which surprisingly, are now some of my best memories. From worst to best … who knew.

By: Will Schindler

Will Schindler — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:38:30 +0000

I thoroughly agree. Experts tend to agree that the #1 backbone skill of building good interpersonal rapport (with anyone from the taxi driver to your date to a prospective employer) is great story-telling.

That’s one part practice and skill at story-telling, and one part living enough life to have relevant stories to tell.

By: Andrew MacPherson

Andrew MacPherson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:40:03 +0000

In your first paragraph about asking people to describe a happy and successful lifestyle, you say that all of their answers will be correct. The more I talk to people about things of this nature, the more I wonder if everyone has thought about, or experienced, enough to give an answer beyond the socially accepted standard responses. I can’t impose my view on them, but I do wonder.

Your point that others’ reactions to one’s life story are a sort of reflection of the life itself is a good perspective. It’s not necessary to live one’s life to impress others, but it’s also too easy to give ourselves overly favorable reviews.