For the PLOT!

When my kids started using this phrase, I had no idea what it meant. I laughed politely, if suspiciously, when they called me a ‘boomer’ and ran to Google to figure out what I was missing.

Y’all. Our kids are SMART. From Urban Dictionary: ‘Do It For The Plot’: the conscious decision to see yourself as the main character of the story that is your life. You maintain the outlook that every moment – good or bad – is merely a plot point for your larger narrative. You are the writer, producer, director and star of your life. Start living unapologetically, and give them a plot twist that no one saw coming.

Main Character Energy!

The “main characters” I’ve been observing lately have been the ones in Hallmark movies. That isn’t exactly the energy I’ve been giving off in real life, nor do I want to! (Side note for another post: why do even the Hallmark movies about divorce showcase…a love story?) The true question is, what type of story is MY story? Is it a thriller? A mystery? A romance? An adventure? I used to think my story was pretty mundane…but now I think it is kind of unreal. More like a Lifetime movie than a Hallmark…and Lifetime has always been a bit too dramatic for my taste. 

Enough about the external plot devices…I think the point of the main character energy is I get to decide what my story is all about, and make the decisions to move it along in the direction I’d like it to go. Guess what? So do you.

Living Life UNAPOLOGETICALLY

No more fear. No more doubt. No more uncertainty.

Just kidding, I don’t think those will ever go away. But–you don’t have to let those things hold you back. Don’t let the fear of something keep you from doing what it is you want to do in life. Get after that graduate degree, even if it has been 20 years since you graduated college. Start the new career. Become a parent. Get the divorce and shed the dead weight of a marriage that was holding you back.

And just like the title of the blog, you don’t have to be sorry for it. The people who matter will be supportive, and the people who aren’t supportive don’t matter. They are not the main characters in your story (news flash: YOU ARE). Let them have their own story.

Your story, your decisions, your dreams are YOURS. And every day you get to make decisions to advance your storyline! Also you need to make sure everyone around you knows what you are doing is FOR THE PLOT! BONUS: You will sound like you are up-to-speed on the current lingo. 😉

The Plot Twists will come

Unfortunately, the author of our story throws in some drama sometimes for good measure. Usually it is to teach us something we need to learn, or help us grow into the person we need to become. Not that we’ll always like these twists, but maybe we should look at what we should learn or how we can grow instead of wailing and gnashing our teeth.

Not that I haven’t spent my fair share of time both wailing and gnashing my teeth (whatever that means). I’ve spent a lot of time at different points in my life both lamenting things that happened to me, and things I’ve actively chosen that turned out a different way than I anticipated.

Right now, honestly! I’m going through lamentations over something that was both my choice and something that happened to me. I’m upset about my choices leading up to finding out the rest of what happened, and also upset about why I didn’t see the freight train coming to knock me off the tracks!

We all have those freight trains, and we will be knocked off the tracks at some point. I heard we were supposed to yell “PLOT TWIST!” and keep moving. I’m not so sure I agree. Sometimes the best way to handle a plot twist is learning to sit in the pain and not let it overcome you. If you can do that, you can truly move forward. Ignoring the pain and “chugging along” won’t work forever. That freight train is coming and that hit will be life threatening if you give it enough time to speed.

You deserve a happy ending

Not all stories get a happy ending. I can think of at least 3 books I’ve heard about recently that just…keep getting worse for the main characters.

But YOU, my friend…YOU deserve a happy ending. So do I. We might have to fight, claw, wail, gnash teeth, or whatever it takes to get to our ending, but we WILL get there. Who knows, maybe a plot twist won’t knock us over, but sweep us to the top of that train like the vagabond character in The Polar Express. 

Until then, don’t be surprised if you hear me yell “FOR THE PLOT!” after every decision I make. 😉 Cheers to remembering we are the main characters and we get to write our happily ever after! ❤️