What do all sto­ries have in com­mon? Con­flict. It is the back­bone of any great sto­ry, includ­ing yours. Every­day we watch tv shows, and movies, read books and graph­ic nov­els that all cen­ter around conflict.

There is a rea­son that Doc­tor Who is one of the most watched tv shows of all time. A show that has spanned 50 years and bro­ken rat­ings records, that was the first tv show broad­cast an episode in 3D.

doctor who

The show has trav­el and adven­ture, tri­umphs and loss­es. It is great fun and utter­ly heart­break­ing. I remem­ber in one episode a char­ac­ter said she liked being sad. It was hap­py for deep peo­ple. And there are times that I watch it just for the ups and downs, the highs and the lows. Also I just start­ed watch­ing Game of Thrones. Don’t even get me start­ed on that show. There are no books, or movies where noth­ing ever goes wrongs. And you cer­tain­ly could­n’t sus­tain a long run­ning tv show like that.

So often we say that we want things to be easy. That we want a life where every­thing flows eas­i­ly to us, but do we real­ly? When we look inside do we real­ly want the per­fect life or do we just think that is what we want? Would we be bored? Hell we won’t sit through an hour of tv with­out con­flict, with­out tragedy, with­out melo­dra­ma. Why would we think we would be hap­py to spend our lives like that?

How many times have you sat down with your grand­par­ents while they told you a sto­ry about how every­thing was per­fect? Once? Twice? I am will­ing to bet that those were the short sto­ries, and the ones that led to the short­est con­ver­sa­tions. With few excep­tions (wed­dings, birth­days ect) no one remem­bers the per­fect days. No one remem­bers the days that were utter­ly nor­mal, where they got up, had a good break­fast, a good day at work, a good com­mute, a good din­ner, and went to bed at a sen­si­ble hour for a good nights sleep. Wow, I got bored just typ­ing that.

So maybe the next time things get rough, your car breaks down, your boss is an ass or life just in gen­er­al sucks, con­sid­er just enjoy­ing the ride. Accept the ups and downs as part as your great story.