Reading is absolutely one of my favorite past times. I love coming home at the end of a long day and unwinding with a good book. Opening the pages of a new story and becoming immersed in a brand new world with brand new characters can be just what I need to recharge for the next day. Sometimes I read the stories so that I can have a momentary escape from all the troubles that are going on in my life at that moment. Other times I pick up a new book because the characters in the pages are going through the same things that I’m going through and because it’s nice to feel like I’m not completely alone. And still other times, I pick up a story and I can’t put it down because everything that’s going on is so thrilling. But no matter the reason I decide to read a new story, I will always keep returning to the fantasy worlds that bring me so much joy.

Now as much as I enjoy reading, it’s also important for me to step out into the world and continue living my own life. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in a new book that I don’t do anything else other than read that story. My life becomes about reading someone else’s story and I forget momentarily that I have my own story to live out. And that is something that I should never want to forget.  And when I remember that my life is more than just reading other people’s stories, I put down my book and get back to letting my own story unfold.

Earlier I mentioned that one of the reasons I read is because the stories are so interesting. The authors make the worlds and all of the adventures that these characters go on sound so exciting that I can’t put the book down, and I have to read on. But the thing is, excitement isn’t only for those that live in these made up worlds. Excitement is just as big a part of this world as it is in the made up worlds. And because it’s my life I have the ability to make the excitement happen for me, and so do you. Even if you don’t happen to write short stories or novels or blog posts, you just so happen to be an author of a very important story— your story. And because you’re the author of your own story, you can come up with any plot line that you want to happen. If you want to go on adventures like your favorite characters in your favorite novel then you can go out and do it. And if you don’t want to go out on adventures like your favorite characters and you want to do something else instead then you have the power to do that as well.

Positive thinker, you need to construct your own story in such a way that’s going to make you want to read it. Create story lines that are so interesting that you don’t want to step away from your own life because you’re out enjoying every single part of it.

Now, in general, authors write to appeal to more than one person, but when you’re the author of your own story, you don’t have to do that. You shouldn’t create your story so that your brother or sister or mother or father or best friend or random acquaintance on Instagram wants to read your story. You should create it so that you’re going to enjoy your story. Don’t worry about whether or not someone else is going to enjoy the story that you’ve created for yourself because you’re not creating the story for someone else. You’re creating it for you. Too many times in life, we get wrapped up in whether or not someone else will like our story and we forget that we need to write it for ourselves and not for anyone else, so I encourage you to not fall into that trap.

And I also encourage you to always remember…

Reading is fine, but reading so much to the point that you forget to live out your own life isn’t fine.

Life is meant to be lived…

So go out there…

Create your own story…

And live it!