Kindle Notes & Highlights
We make sense of our own lives while leaving our life legacy for posterity.
Clarity emerges from reflection.
The wisdom we gain is a gift that we can share with those who come after us.
In Guided Autobiography these are called life themes.
prime our memories
The themes prime many memories of the past that can be woven into the story of one’s life.
Forks in the Road.
a turning point in your life.
Memorable moments do not happen in order, nor do they always happen during key moments such as a graduation, a wedding, a first day on the job, or the day you retired. Instead they may sneak up on you when you least expect them.
“That’s not how you do it. You should …” They need to be ignored. Building a custom life story does not require that you follow a rigid template.
Books are written to be read.
listening to music
visiting
the...
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out. You must define your audience. If you are writing for your grandchildren, write accordingly.
“A man’s experiences of life are a book. There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.” —MARK TWAIN
Research has shown that children who know more about their family history have lower anxiety and more self-acceptance.
include My Life by Bill Clinton;
Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball; and An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi.
Specifically a memoir takes a central theme and amplifies it into a life story.
Child Star by Shirley Temple Black, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt.
The confessional memoirist seeks to reclaim a part of his or her life, one lost through painful experiences and poor choices. Time passes, and from the perspective of distance, the author reaches backwards, trying to make sense of what went wrong, and why.
The Confessions of St. Augustine, known as the very first published life story, written between 397–400 A.D.
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton and The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness by Karen Armstrong.
include: Tell me when and where you were born. What kind of education did you have? Tell me about your marriage, first job, and when you first left home. Tell me about your career. What have been the successes in your life? The questions are sequential, from childhood to the present.
In creative nonfiction, real-life people are sometimes molded into composite characters;
Writing Your Legacy uses this thematic approach for creating the best life story possible. It serves as a powerful hybrid that measures the ways we have lived our lives and shows us how we can best tell our stories.
Psychologist Dr. James W. Pennebaker advocates that writing about your deepest secrets can lead to better emotional and physical health.
“Growing evidence suggests that translating events into language can affect brain and immune function.”
commit to writing daily.
“Spend your time more wisely.
Never, ever be afraid to fail. Without failure, we never truly learn.
flexible goal setting.
Make a plan to write somethin...
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If you can’t devote an hour, a few minutes is fine.
Don’t be concerned about grammar. Just get your story down. Later you can revise where needed.
Reward yourself. For each theme you write, treat yourself to something extra. It might be a magazine you normally would not buy, or it might be a few quiet moments of reflection or a stroll in a nearby park.
Your life story project is special.
Be open to new learning. Go to the library and find memoirs to read that will inspire and inform your own writing.
forward. Imagine your children or their children reading your life story. Imagine
Never forget that no one else can tell your story. Only you have lived it, and it is for you to write.
Express who you really are without a thought for the consequences. Write from your heart...
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Collect a handful of motivational quotes, and post them where you...
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the dining room table
a home office.
Because you are writing your story, and what you remember may not jive with the memories of those closest to you.
e-mail, or through texting.
We put ourselves on the line when we write—
What will others think?
No matter what your standing in life is now, you are here because you failed and learned.
