Take Artistic License With Your Life

This is an except from Mind Macros 07.

“When a movie begins with the words ‘based on a true story,’ what crosses your mind? Do you assume every line of dialogue, every bit of clothing and song in the background is the same as it was in the true event on which the film was based? Of course you don’t. You know movies like Pearl Harbor or Erin Brockovich take artistic license with facts, shaping them so a coherent story will unfold with a beginning, middle, and end.

​Even biopics about the lives of musicians or politicians who are still alive are rarely the absolute truth. Some things are left out, or some people are fused into single characters.

​The details, you think when watching, are less important than the big picture, the general idea. If only you were so savvy when it came to looking back on the biopic in your head.”​ — From Happy by Derren Brown.

We are often haunted by the details of our past.

Why did I say that? What an idiot! If only I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have come across as so rude.

Or larger events that plague us just as much, unhealthy relationships, dead-end jobs, and toxic friends.

This microscopic analysis is a perspective problem; we’re obsessing over the granular details when we should be looking at the overall trend.