When life throws you for a loop, it usually means you are greatly taken by surprise when your guard is down. This can be either positive or negative. Most success stories you hear are about people who are dealt an unexpected blow and they turn it into a positive outcome. How many times have you heard someone say you need to turn your challenges into opportunities? Or to see obstacles as possibilities? Yet, while some people are born naturally positive, most of us learn to do this over time. Most of us, even children, need time to adjust and reset when life ‘throws you for a loop”.
The Success Story Loop model will show you 7 steps for moving through change so you can make sure you end up with the happy ever after.
You can download the eBook for Getting More Personal Success Authentically Right Here.
If it is not happy, it is not the ending
There are Three ways, though, to understand the ‘loop’ concept:
1. The Drama’s of life
Every myth, fairytale, Bible story, Shakespeare play, feature film or novel you have ever read, heard or seen that has a happy ending, follow someone overcoming the odds after being thrown for a loop. They are designed to help you know how to do it when you are living your story. Even the sad stories and tragedies comment on the same pattern by showing you what happens when something goes wrong somewhere and the character takes a wrong turn. If, after all these stories, you don’t know yet how, let me clear the trees for you so you can see the wood. This model reveals to you the overarching dramatic pattern of change and growth so you can have a future distinct from your past.
You may think I am making a sweeping statement here: really, all stories? If you know about ‘the hero’s journey’ or mythic structure’ or have read about the recipes Hollywood uses to concoct their stories, you may say: this is over simplified, there are many other versions that do not fit the bill so beautifully. Of course you are right. I am not ‘buying’ any specific model or theory about structuring stories. I am responding to the dramatic cycle of change: that thing which all stories try to deal with – that occurrence of life throwing you for a loop. And yes, some stories deal with it far more plausibly than others with far more aesthetics and cognizance of the complexities of life than others – but they still respond to the same underlying dramatic structure of change, of learning and of making a success of adversity.
Perhaps you are naturally skeptical about the use of such farfetched nonsense thinking ‘life is not so simple’, ‘life is not a fairy tale’. You are right! But many fairy-tales are nasty and do not even end in marriages and the discovery of treasure. Yet all of these stories try to relate to you and me something of how it works when things change and what you and I can do in response so that we do not take a dive or just survive, but thrive.
2. Big and small loops
The loop idea goes further than just an expression about life’s little surprises. It also refers to the cyclical nature of change and of life. The same seven steps function in the smallest of shifts you experience in your life to the biggest life cycle you can observe. You can look at a single event in your life and see the 7 moments, or you can look at your entire life cycle and see them there too. From the despair you experience because your business is not making enough money this month to the stages of your life from baby to golden oldie, the same cycle is evident. So use this model to create a success of just one date with your partner, or use it to make a success of your entire career. You can play with it on small scale moments or apply it to large scale events with high stakes. You will never need to fall apart over anything in your life again if you know where it fits into your story and how to respond to it.
3. The loop of succession
There is one more way in which a success story becomes a loop. The actual structure of the story follows a loop. Every character sets his or her course in some direction, is thwarted and must adapt or refocus to try again and succeed. The very essence of the word ‘succeed’ holds this idea of following in the same path. Think of the word ‘succession’ which refers to the son or daughter following in the footsteps of the royal parent. In the Success Story loop you get to literally follow in your own footsteps to review the situation you are in from a new perspective so that you can try again with greater success. The entire story revolves or ‘loops’ around this moment of big picture insight. It is the moment of presence, of ‘being in the now’, of getting the ‘aha-experience’ that will shift the balance in your favor. Yet this moment is preceded by a certain sequence of events and choices and followed by similar events and choices now acted upon from a new point of view. Yet, the second time round it is sealed by a certain attitude that is impossible to fake because of the access you gained to the present moment.
Want to know how Cinderella became queen? How Little Red overcame the wolf? How Shrek found true love? How Frodo became the hero of Middle Earth? How Salander in ‘the Millennium Trilogy’ overcame the ‘bastards’ who hate women? How Brave Heart found peace and victory in spite of being killed? These are just some of the stories I will play with to help you map out your own success. There will be a success story for you. Down load the eBook.
So, use the Success Story Loop to
- Engineer your own success
- Discover which stage you are in right now and how to get to the next one
- Choose the kind of help you need
- see what sort of obstacles you can plan for
- Find out what you have control over and what not
- Learn to forgive yourself and others for failure
- Accept the uncertainties and unpredictability of life
- Find the route into the present moment
- Increase the amount of ‘aha-experiences’ you have
- Stop taking life so seriously: it is just a story!
Making a success of your life, is as easy and as hard as telling a story.