Ready Or Not, It’s Time To Change Your Life

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The most significant feature of a flat-tire event that can change your life is that you’re never ready for it.

Life Is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans

That’s the thing about flat tires. You’re driving along, minding your own business, when suddenly, unexpectedly, your tire goes flat. Maybe it’s a sudden blowout, which can be a frightening experience when you’re behind the wheel. Or maybe it’s less dramatic but no less urgent. While you were on your way to some destination, something happened to one of the tires that was taking you there. 

The unexpected nature of the flat tire demonstrates the point of John Lennon’s words from his song, “Beautiful Boy.”

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

Do It Now

The second defining feature of a flat-tire event is its urgency. You can only drive so far on a flat tire and then you have to do something about it. You can’t procrastinate, put it off, or wait until “someday” to deal with it. 

These two defining characteristics of a flat tire are the essential features of any metaphorical flat-tire event. You didn’t expect and you have to do something about it.

These two facts lead to the third reality of a flat-tire event. 

You’re Never Ready

You aren’t ready. Even if you do your best to live by the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared,” you’re never ready for the kind of experience that qualifies as a true flat-tire event.

Consider the words of the founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell.

“Be prepared for what?” someone once asked Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting,

“Why, for any old thing,” said Baden-Powell (Be Prepared).

That’s the challenge at the beginning of a true hero’s journey. You might be prepared for “any old thing,” but you’re not prepared for this new thing.

This is beginning point of a hero’s journey. You’re not a hero at the beginning of your journey because you are not ready.

If you have a flat tire, and you have a jack and a spare in the trunk, and you deal with it as just one of life’s annoyances, there’s nothing in the experience that is going to set you off on your life changing story experience.

Your Decision

A true flat-tire event is an urgent occurrence you didn’t expect and you are definitely not ready for it. But here it is. The moment of decision. Do you start the hero’s journey or not?

In his wonderful book, Stealing Fire From the Gods, James Bonnet makes this statement about preparedness.

“In great stories, ninety-nine out of a hundred heroes take up the challenge. In real life, the vast majority refuse. To refuse the call means to let the problems slide and not become part of the solution. The world remains in trouble and we remain stuck” (Stealing Fire from the Gods: The Complete Guide to Story for Writers and Filmmakers, 2nd Edition page 128).

You can’t drive very far on a flat tire and you can’t get unstuck if you don’t fix the metaphorical flat-tires of your life. You can sit by the side of the road, lamenting your fate, waiting for someone to come along and rescue you, or you can fix the thing yourself or call someone who can fix it for you.

It’s the same with life. You do what you need to do to fix it or you wait helplessly for someone to save you.

This is why changing your life means making a choice to do what you are not ready to do. It means starting out on your own heroic journey to transform your life.

Enough Preparation

And this is enough preparation for the Life Story Transformation Process. The next series of posts begins the hero’s journey required to change your life by transforming your life stories. 

For your success,

Kalinda 

Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson

The Story Transformer 

Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”

This is the fifth post in a 5-Part series.

How Your Flat-Tire Stories Change Your Life

Is Your Flat-Tire A Life Changing Story Event Or Just An Occurrence?

Would You Keep The Money?: Flat-Tire Events Force To You To Make Life Changing Ethical Decisions

The Human Story In Your Flat-Tire Event

Ready Or Not, It’s Time To Change Your Life