Meaning & Myth
Seeking Transcendence Through Story

What follows is a detailed guide to identifying, living, and changing your personal myth. This methodology is laid out in chapter 10 of Dan McAdam's book The Stories We Live By. It should be used flexibly, adapted in whatever way makes sense to you and serves your purposes. Identifying the Myth McAdams recommends interpersonal dialogue as the best way to begin to identify your myth. He imagines a conversation partner with whom you can begin this exercise. If you have a friend who is willing to serve in this capacity (and is not TOO close to your story), that's great! If you do not, you can be your own conversation partner, using a journal or voice recorder to work through these steps of uncovering your story. Step One: Identify your "life chapters. Break your life up into several chunks, based on whatever means of organizing it seems fitting. Perhaps chronological, such as preschool, elementary, middle, high school, college, career/marriage/parenting stages, etc. It may be that your life naturally takes on a thematic rather than chronological frame. Maybe you moved several times. These various changes in place may serve as good "chapters." Perhaps you define your life in terms of key relationships, or some other pattern or markers. There is no "right" way to organize your life story. The important thing is, even by discovering what natural sections your story wants to divide itself into, you may gain insight into yourself! Things to notice: •What imagery are you using? What kinds of images, symbols, objects, keep appearing? •What tone is your story taking on? Optimistic? Pessimistic? Fatalistic? What can you learn from the tone your story takes? Step Two: Describe 8 Key Events Describe in detail 8 significant events in your life. Write them as much like a scene in a novel or movie as you can. Include descriptions, actions, and dialogue. Capture everything you can remember – but don’t worry about accuracy. Your memory is subjective. Your unconscious mind is choosing to remember this event in a particular way. You can learn from what you remember, even if your “narrative truth” is not precisely “historical truth.” Suggestions for choosing the 8 events: 1.Peak experience – What do you consider the high point of your life? 2.Rock bottom experience – What do you consider your low point? 3.Turning point – What is an episode where you underwent some sort of change from which there was no turning back? 4.Earliest memory 5.Significant childhood memory 6.Significant adolescent memory 7.Significant adult memory 8.Other important memory Things to notice: •In your events, do you see yourself being primarily motivated by power/accomplishment or by love/relationships? Step Three: Identify Main Characters •What people emerge as significant? •Who are your role models or idols? •Can you identify allies? •Can you identify antagonists? Step Four: Map your Future Script Where do you see your life going from here? What are your desires, goals, and dreams? Now consider this: If you were to map your past and present with dots, and connect them with a straight line, if you kept moving along this same trajectory, would the line connect to the “dot” of your desired future story? Or would you be way off the mark? In other words, is the path you are on taking you to the future you want? If not… We’ll come back to this later! Step Five: Obstacles, Conflicts, and Problems Can you identify the things that block you from achieving your goals? What are the conflicts that produce stress day to day? What problems do you face? How are these things interfering with your happiness and flourishing? Step Six: Identify your Ideology •Do you believe in a particular deity? Religion? •Do you have political views? •Ethical stances? •What do you value? •Have your beliefs remained consistent most of your life, or have they changed significantly? What led to that change? Step Seven: Identify your life theme If you had to sum up your life “theme” (lesson, moral) in a simple statement, “X leads to Y,” what would that statement be?