It’s true. In many ways, we create and then follow our own narratives. If we tell ourselves and others we’re a shy person, an impulsive person, a partying person, we tend to try to live up (or down) to those created expectations.
I consider it a side-effect of the need for personality categorization, popularized by the rise of social sciences in the 1950s through to advertising target markets (demographics, psychographics) and the pseudoscience that is the Briggs/Myers Personality Test in vogue in many fields of employment. But we are, of course, incapable of easy pigeonholing. I’m shy, I’m impulsive and I’m a partier, but then I tell complex stories anyway.
I think there is a tendency toward self fulfilling prophecy, but I also think that when the stories don’t jibe with the true essence of who the teller is, then the discordance created causes unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment in so many other peripheral things not associated with the story.
More I think the statement is truer as it pertains to the stories we tell ourselves in our heads more than the ones we write or speak to others. If we tell ourselves repeatedly in fearful thoughts that we are worthless, no manner of high talk to others will change our reactions to the harshness we place upon our own heads. We will continue to react to those internal narrative until they are changed and that is so fucking hard to do!
This reminds me of Jung and Campbell. And how I had to institute the thought diet in order to make room for new personal narratives myself. Though it seem Western there is also something Eastern in it when I think of the few meditations I have visited. Being in the moment is reading the story as it is unfolding. However, that suggests that purposeful change is futile and that no matter the story we have the Tao has it’s own ideas and in the grand scheme the stories we tell are the ones we are meant to tell. Not sure if I buy that bit or not though.
Comments (2)
It’s true. In many ways, we create and then follow our own narratives. If we tell ourselves and others we’re a shy person, an impulsive person, a partying person, we tend to try to live up (or down) to those created expectations.
I consider it a side-effect of the need for personality categorization, popularized by the rise of social sciences in the 1950s through to advertising target markets (demographics, psychographics) and the pseudoscience that is the Briggs/Myers Personality Test in vogue in many fields of employment. But we are, of course, incapable of easy pigeonholing. I’m shy, I’m impulsive and I’m a partier, but then I tell complex stories anyway.
I think there is a tendency toward self fulfilling prophecy, but I also think that when the stories don’t jibe with the true essence of who the teller is, then the discordance created causes unhappiness and a lack of fulfillment in so many other peripheral things not associated with the story.
More I think the statement is truer as it pertains to the stories we tell ourselves in our heads more than the ones we write or speak to others. If we tell ourselves repeatedly in fearful thoughts that we are worthless, no manner of high talk to others will change our reactions to the harshness we place upon our own heads. We will continue to react to those internal narrative until they are changed and that is so fucking hard to do!
This reminds me of Jung and Campbell. And how I had to institute the thought diet in order to make room for new personal narratives myself. Though it seem Western there is also something Eastern in it when I think of the few meditations I have visited. Being in the moment is reading the story as it is unfolding. However, that suggests that purposeful change is futile and that no matter the story we have the Tao has it’s own ideas and in the grand scheme the stories we tell are the ones we are meant to tell. Not sure if I buy that bit or not though.