Are you living a Scripted Life?
Glen / 
25 Comments / 
August 18th, 2008 / 
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Scripted living could also be phrased as living life unconsciously. It is the process of having your life planned out in front of you, living like you are following a script. It is the root of a lot of unhappiness yet it is a path followed by the majority of the world.
With this post I want to look more at living a scripted life, why we do it and ways to get out of the rut.
What is Scripted Living?
In essence, it is going through life the way you think you are supposed too. In this day and age it might be:
- Go to School
- Pick a subject you like and study it at college
- Continue that subject for 3 - 4 years in college / university
- Hope to get a job with the degree you have earned
- Work for 20 - 30 years then retire
- In that time you might have a nice house, car, wife and kids
- Spend the money you’ve made during retirement (when you are in your worst physical form)
The reason I’ve laid it out like this is because when you look at it carefully, it is clearly one of the most unattractive life / career options you can possibly take, yet it is the one taken by the majority.
It is living a life that we are expected to live or may have followed because we see others doing the same i.e. if our friends or parents went to college then we should be doing the same thing. It is living a life that we’ve already set out well before actually finding our passion or true interests. I have no problems with Scripted Living if you are doing something you love and are sharing your value with the world, yet this is rarely the case.
Why do we choose Scripted Living?
The answer to this is very simple, and if you are living a scripted life then you shouldn’t have to think hard about the answer: because it is easy. Our need of survival should always come first, so things like needing money for food and a roof over our head is much more important than worrying about the job we are doing to actually make money. In reality of course, it isn’t easy; living like this can cause us far more pain than we realise but it seems easier than trying to achieve our goals and possibly failing.
Now you may be thinking “I didn’t choose to live like this, It’s just what I have to do”. My response? “No it isn’t, if you look for alternatives and try hard enough to make them a reality, you can make anything possible”.
Whilst I’ll never claim to be better than anyone else or purposefully come across as ‘Mr Know-it-all’, I don’t think I can ever be said as living a scripted life. I do have friends back home in England that I would say are living a script, the main reasons being:
- They don’t know what else they should be doing
- They haven’t found their main passion / focus
- What they are doing is deemed acceptable and ‘normal’
Living a scripted life is like being on a fast-track to unhappiness. That is why I want to give you a guide to understand that there is more to this world than following a life approved by society and then simply dying. I apologise if you don’t like it when I write things bluntly, but in essence that is what happens.
Living a Happy, Conscious and Abundant life
Before you think that there is no way to change your current lifestyle, slow down and focus. I spent 2 years in college doing courses I couldn’t stand and had a part-time job I absolutely hated. It is only my duty to share what helped me get on the path to my dream job and living with abundance.
With the following plan you should start to see that life doesn’t have to be the way it currently is, and you can still live a happy life, working a job you love, whilst having the security that you need.
1. Work out your goals
If you follow the personal development / self improvement niche closely then you’ve probably heard this a few times. It’s so easy to skip this because it is common, but it is common because it works. If you know what your goals in life are then it is so much easier to begin to accommodate your life around them and to start being able to work on them more often.
My goals include:
- Aiming to help as many people as possible plug into their identity
- Live consciously and in non-judgment of others
- Turning PluginID into a successful business
- Reaching over 1,000 blog subscribers
As you can see, goals can be short-term and long-term, they can be something that will last you a lifetime or something that you can reach and move past. Whatever your goals in life are, write them down. It helps to do this with a mindset in which you believe you can’t fail, so you end up picking things you would really like to achieve.
2. Look at your current situation
Look at your current life situation from a birds eye view, it might help to write down how you see your life and where is it going. Write down things such as:
- What is your job
- What are your skills
- What are your qualifications
- What do you not like about your current situation
As you are writing these down, don’t just focus on the negative; include all the positive things as well. Now, ask yourself “are my goals able to fit into my current lifestyle“. If your goal is to start your own business, and you are working as a receptionist in an printer company, what are your plans to move beyond that?
3. Realise you have a choice to change
The interesting thing is, most people know that their lives aren’t great or they wish they could be doing other things. The thing that holds them back is the fear of people judging them, their lack of self belief or other pointless, limiting feelings.
I watched a film by Eckhart Tolle yesterday in which he talks about how his mother thought of him as a failure, he was quite old and by his own admission hadn’t done anything in his life. When asked about his thoughts on becoming a successful author, he replied “My mother’s happy now”. Don’t let age or any other limitations (whether mind, body or spirit) get in the way of you living the life that you want to live, the life you are meant to live.
No matter what life you are living now, no matter how unhappy you think you are or how difficult a situation you are in, there is a way to get out of it and grow. Your success may be in finding that path, or even sharing the success of that journey with others. Or maybe it’s in achieving the goals you want to achieve; you’ll never know unless you take the first step to finding out.
4. Take that first step
This is the hardest and the easiest part of any journey. The hardest in the sense that you need the drive and determination to take it but the easiest in the sense that you know you are doing the right thing. Your search to achieve you goals should not be in order to improve your sense of self (identity) or make you happy, but to really make a difference…to really do something with your life.
No matter how much time you think something is going to take, you are going to go through that time period anyway. You may as well be doing something useful, positive and inspiring.
- Glen Allsopp
Start to look at ways in which you can incorporate your goals with your current life situation. The main reason I suggested you write this down is that you can see from a birds eye view whether you can link the two together or something is going to have to change. I highly recommend the Four Hour Work Week (Review) for more tips on working less hours and moving out of your current job environment.
There’s a whole world out there, don’t miss it because you are too busy with the script.
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This is a major article, Glen, that is basically a manifesto for acheiving our potential in life.
While every one of your 4 points is an an exellent summary, I am glad you included that we must first realise that change is a choice.
All too often, we have a hard-to-break belief that change is a wasted effort, that there is no point in even starting.
This self-defeatist attitude leads to so many unexplored opportunities and unfulfilled ambitions.
However, it is perfectly understandable why we are programmed to have this mindset from a very young age- you call it ’scripted living’. I’ve never heard this phrase, but it sums up the idea perfectly.
Because the majority of folk around us are living their own scripted lives, they reinforce in ourselves that this is the ’safest option’.
We play along in this drama because to take a risk opens us up to the potential for failure. And while success is fantastic, no one likes to fail.
Yet, success can only ever come when you are willing to move away from the script and give yourself permission to contemplate failure.
Excellent article, Glen!
Yes. I am living a scripted life: Although I have already taken the first steps away from it, when you are deep enough in the system, making your way out of it is not that easy.
I was thinking about something earlier today: Most personal development bloggers are talking about being brave and deciding to break out from the rat race of doing things that we are “supposed” to do. But the problem is that we make it sound easier than it is. We hardly tackle the hard issues of how to do it in practice… That’s the part we leave up to the reader to decide.
I think you are among the rare bloggers who can talk about this topic with 100% confidence as your own example shows that it can be done. But I guess it wasn’t easy for you either?
Don’t get me wrong, this was a great post, and just the inspiration I needed to hear today. And probably again tomorrow. And the day after that - every day until I’m finally there
I just hope there would be more talk about what it takes to make it…
Thanks, and duly noted for when I do a post about my own experiences / challenges.
Awesome comment Jarkko
Excellent post. So good. You’ve made me realise that it is indeed a ’scripted life’ - I always complain about it but it’s never hit my that I could actually do something. Thank you!
Your welcome Corinne, it’s comments like that which inspire me to keep going
Thanks a lot!
Excellent, excellent post. I am hitting stumble it, although, my powers are relatively small :).
To add to this, I actually started my blog based on this concept. I went from working for $$$ in a business I hated to working for barely anything in something I love. I was living a scripted life I did not like, until I realized the author was ME!
Once I came to that conclusion, I decided it was time to take a little control and really go after what I want. I get not claim that I have become financially set yet, but the change has left me feeling successful and proud each and everyday I go to work. Not only that, but my New Media business has begun to boom, because of the love I have for the work.
Great post.
http://yinvsyang.com/
I was kind of in the same situation, although I grew the blog I have now based on the love of the topic, there is so much rubbish out there and I’ve learned so much that it barely interests me.
One of the only reasons I kept it going was the financial aspect of things.
Thanks for the comment
Hi. I feel my views and goals offer a unique counterpoint of sorts. I am not living what you would call a scripted life. I am, however, trying as hard as I can to do so, and not making much progress. While it seems that we agree on many things, my main point of contention is that I feel living a scripted life is not a mutually exclusive experience from “Living a Happy, Conscious and Abundant life”. People can do both.
See, unlike many people, I knew from an early age what I wanted to do with my life - I’ve always wanted to be a husband and father. You could call it my driving goal in life. I took in all the good things about my family life and childhood and thought “I really want to try all of this from Dad’s point of view” Likewise, every bad thing on the same topic, I thought “I really wanna try this with my own solution”.
The point is, I was always a thinker, and because of my schooling, I never hesistated to question the motives and passions of others, as well as my own. What I believe you, Glen, and I would agree on is that there are too many people in our society who don’t indulge in introspection. Too many are content to stumble through life, doing what other people tell them they should. They don’t question why the world works the way it seems to, or if the goals of others are really their own. And that’s a tragedy, because life is precious, and yes, for the most part, everyone is in control of their own life. And if you don’t like how things are going, you owe it to yourself to do everything in your power to change it.
Still, in my case, this is how I have been living my life for about a decade. My problem is not the recognition of what path I want my life to take, or the execution. I can honestly say that I’m trying everything I can to find a girl (the “right” one, anyway) and settle down with her. I am already on your step 5, and I must say that it’s worked for me, and while it does not work for everyone, there is no better “default” plan for those who don’t put in the time to figure out what they really want in life. For far, for me, and being in my environment, step 6 is proving very difficult, but as I said before, that’s a separate issue.
In short, I strongly believe that living a scripted life is NOT NECESSARILY like being on a fast-track to unhappiness. Living a life where you refuse to dig deep and figure out what kind of script YOU want for your life is the key to unhappiness. For many people, they will realize that they were living lives other people told them to live out of ignorance - and that is wrong. But abandoning a fairly well tested system (or should I say, set of common goals and steps - “the script”) simply because a minority of people say that it NEVER works is guilty of the same pitfalls.
In other words, unless you feel your life isn’t worth making as great as possible, you should write your own script… even if it’s unconventional. The four steps Glen outlines are great ways to do that.
too many people in our society who don’t indulge in introspection. Too many are content to stumble through life, doing what other people tell them they should. They don’t question why the world works the way it seems to, or if the goals of others are really their own.
I completely agree, and don’t think I could have summed it up better than you did
I like how you opposed my thinking, and I might go back to change some of the wording because I believe in your belief. I did include the following quote as a ‘back-up’ so to speak:
“I have no problems with Scripted Living if you are doing something you love and are sharing your value with the world, yet this is rarely the case.”
Regarding your woman issues, what are you doing about it. Are you dwelling on the issue or are you:
Sometimes it can be better to zoom out of your own life and see if you are taking the necessary steps to reach your next goal.
Roddy,
I just wanted to offer something I wrote which may help you with your current challenge:
http://ourbestversion.com/2008/08/how-to-get-ready-to-meet-your-soulmate/
As thoughtful and insightful as you are, I’m sure you’re bound to find someone great for you!
ari
I agree with Roddy’s analysis. Not all scripted life is bad. The problem comes when the script is written by someone other than yourself.
Living a conscious life doesn’t mean you have to be aware of every single routine that goes into your life. Rather, you want to consciously create good routines and habits that feed you and play off of your strengths and style, and then put it all on auto-pilot, your default mode. This can create a powerful life cycle, one that keeps spinning and gets better the longer you live it.
The idea is not to unscript your life, but to rescript it.
Now, as for why we become stuck with scripts that don’t work for you, I have an observation: the school. Schools are responsible for giving us scripts and getting us used to living by them. Think about it:
-your schedule is given to you, and was drafted with eye toward maximum efficiency of the mass in mind
-you are constantly told to meet standards arbitrarily set by others
-you are always told what to study and how to study, regardless of your interests and learning styles
I’m not saying that everyone should drop scooling as we know it. But we should recognize it for what it is: a game we must play so that the society at large can label us, measure us and understand us. We need to unlearn what we learned there before we begin to realize our potential.
I’ll have a post on this coming up on my blog in the near future!
ari
Interesting viewpoint their Ari, I like how you’ve linked this back to childhood and schooling. I definitely think there is some labelling involved which affects us from a young age.
I did respond to Roddy and state that I did mention not all scripted living is bad, but thanks for your comments.
Glen,
I really love your site. I just subscribed.
Life is a bit difficult right now, but it’s also better than it’s ever been. The difficulty arises from the fact that my wife and I aren’t willing to settle for a scripted life. The thought is unacceptable. We’ve already done every one of the above steps. Now, it’s a matter of time before were sailing toward horizon.
Thanks for a great site.
Thanks so much, that means a lot to me. Good luck on your journey, I’m sure you will succeed with that much positivity.
Very excellent writing style. Thanks for the read.
Thanks, I used to be a terrible writer but I’m definitely getting better, something I’ve had to work hard at though
Thanks for this article. I don’t live a scripted life at all and sometimes I worry that I SHOULD be living a scripted life because its what normal people do! But this reminds me that although I’m not always completely happy. At least I am free and I am me and I chose my way.
Interesting post! I have lived a life that is the polar opposite of a scripted life..probably because of my personality which has a strong need for freedom and following my own drum. Perhaps some of it is even genetic as my father and great grandfather had similar tendencies.
I wonder if some people are more prone to unscripted or scripted lives? I wonder how much environment when one is growing up impacts future choices? I grew up with lots of moving around which made me very adaptable, out of the box thinker and a risk taker.
My daughter seems to be born with the same freedom and happiness gene. We are traveling the world ( open ended) as a lifestyle, so I doubt if she will choose a scripted life.
On the other hand, my husband led a very scripted life, but has also easily adapted to non scripted ways since our marriage and thrives on it.
Interesting. Thanks!
Thanks for the comment and for sharing your story!
Great post Glen! It seems that you know, understand and apply the Law of Attraction! Please continue on being blunt and positive. People actually need this type of wake up call. I wish you the best with your goals in life! Keep it up!
Thanks for stopping by Raymond. I’m aware of the Law of Attraction but I didn’t consciously write anything relating to it in this post, maybe I’m doing it unconsciously though
Thanks again
Brilliant post buddy!! Keep up the good work, I look forward to reading your future posts.
It’s true..if it’s easy- why change it? At least, this is what the majority of people think. That’s why certain professions pay more money (I’m convinced) because if it was easy, everyone would do it…