I’m reading a book called “SCREENPLAY: The Foundations of Screenwriting” by Syd Field.

The main gist of the book is the structure of a successful screenplay: He writes that structure is composed of three items: Set-up, confrontation, resolution. For example, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, or not. It’s pretty straightforward.

It got me to thinking that the chapters of life follow the same formula. We embark on a new chapter with eyes open and make progress, we get upended by something that results in a black eye, and then we resolve it or not.

It’s the resolve it or not phase of life that’s dependent on options. The people who don’t resolve their situation have one option: staying mired in their misery. The people who have the best chance of a productive resolution notice they have many more options.

We’ve been conditioned in life to react. We believe it’s our only option. That means we re-enact the same solution we tried before and get the same unsuccessful results. We don’t recognize that doing that same thing again and again keeps us stuck in the past – in the land of “remember when.”

Resolution is dependent on responding vs. reacting. Responding is noticing that there is more than one option. In fact, countless more options present themselves if we stop and notice that our standard reaction isn’t working.

But we stay stuck with our one option by making excuses for it. “I’m not trying hard enough,” or “everyone’s against me,” or my favorite, “it was God’s will.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think God wants you to stay stuck.

The answer to your prayers are options – avenues of exploration that open your eyes to solutions.

The key to getting up after being knocked on your tushie is to notice there are options past the one one that’s keeping you down. Then, it’s a matter of acting on those new responses to reach your happy ending.

The next time you watch a movie, notice the structure: set-up, confrontation, and resolution. Let it remind you that, in life, options are your solution.

All the best,

John

Hear the recorded version below.