A Surprising Benefit Of Telling Our Story

When we tell a story we have to define a character with a desire, who goes on a journey.

Our character will encounter opposing forces [people, society, nature] and struggle to overcome them.?

Our character will achieve their desires when they adequately overcome these challenges and complete the journey.?

There is a surprising benefit to telling our story that is often overlooked.?

We see ourselves and our enemies anew.?

You are aware, no doubt, of the psychological phenomenon in which we minimize our own failures and maximize the failures of others.?

This cognitive bias is well understood in psychology and self help books and the gospels addresses it in the book of Matthew 7:5 with a question:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

When we tell a story, we are telling a 3rd person narrative and by doing so we can see the faults and failures of our character from a distance.?

This is to mean if we are telling a story about ourselves, we are more likely to understand ourselves much better by viewing ourselves as someone else.?

A problem understood is a problem solved.?

This gives nuance to our self-understanding because we can see the challenges we face in life in much clearer resolution, and in many places the underlying causes of these challenges.?

Side note: If we tell a story, in which our protagonist has no flaws, moves through the world innocently, heroically and perfectly, and face enemies inexorably evil and twisted, then we can rest assured that our story is no longer art, but is in fact propaganda.?

A well written story will expose character flaws and in doing so, we can see better the steps our character must take to navigate the challenges ahead of them.??

We can, as it were, rewrite our own journey, by telling a story.

Making peace with our enemies

By facing our own flaws, we face our enemy, because by doing so we meet the person holding us back from success in life.?

Addressing our flaws is as significant to success as beating an opponent in battle.?

It is no small coincidence that in many mythical, romantic, science fiction and fantasy fiction, protagonists facing their arch enemy discover that this enemy is in large part themselves in some form or another.

Whether our enemy is ourself, or another agent or force in the world, very rarely are enemies truly evil or maligned, but simply characters or forces with their own flaws, motives, understanding and desires.?

By painting them as 3D characters into our stories, we must in fact develop empathy for their motivations and actions.?

We can see our own character and flaws and how these create a unique conflict with external forces and agents..?

Once our enemy and the conflict we face is understood, our character can pass the challenge and move on towards achieving their goals.?