Most stories follow a typical arc: beginning –> middle –> end.

But my favorite movie from the Predator franchise took a different approach.

The opening scene of Predators (2010) sees the mercenary Royce deploying a parachute and crash landing into a jungle after waking up in the middle of a freefall from the sky.

Just like Royce, the viewer is thrown right in the middle of the story with a bunch of questions:

• Where is he?
• Why was he falling from the sky?
• And how is he going to find his way back home?

More than an exciting way to start a movie, Angus Fletcher argues in his book Primal Intelligence, that this sequence is how we actually experience life: middle –> beginning –> end.

We encounter a situation–financial debt, a health problem, drama in our social life–we look to the past to try to figure out how this situation came to be, and then we imagine new plans to build a future we desire.

Like an author of fiction, we think in narrative, which as Fletcher puts it, "Is another name for a plot, which is another name for a plan, which is another name for a story about the future."

Describing what journaling does for me was impossible until I came across this narrative theory of thinking. Writing in my notebook allows me to:

1. Describe and record where I'm currently at in my life's story.
2. Look to my past to see how I got here and what I've learned along the way.
3. Plot a new narrative by exploring possible futures and then make plans to create that reality.

Most people talk about journaling in an almost mystical way. I've heard:

• "Journaling is how I process my emotions."
• "Writing things down helps manifest my reality."
• "Journaling allows me to be more in touch with my authentic self."

Processing emotions in a journal is really starting at the middle of the story: What am I feeling? Going back to the beginning: What caused this emotion and what is it trying to tell me? And then, imagining a new future to resolve the issue the emotion was signaling.

"Manifesting reality" is the woo-woo way of saying, "I wrote a story about how I want my future to unfold and started making plans to get there."

"Getting in touch with your authentic self" is a result of attending to your life's narrative by learning from your past, recording your present, and deconstructing the narratives put on to you from others. With the middle and beginning integrated, you can decide what your future story is going to be.

That, for me, is what journaling empowers: the ability to author my life. To be able to see clearly where the story has been and imagine where it could go.

So the next time you're unsure about something in your life and need to think things through consider asking yourself the following questions:

1. How did I get here?
2. Where do I want to be instead?
3. How can I get there?

The point isn't to create the perfect plan, but to train yourself to think like an author so you can learn from your past and write better stories about your possible future.

Prompt:

Think back to a time when you had something unexpected happen–good or bad. What caused the unexpected event? How did you respond? What did that response lead to? Would you do anything different?