Ideas shape our lives. Ideas shape history. We all have a need for a constant flow of ideas that inspire us, challenge us, illumine our minds, teach us about ourselves and our world, show us what is possible, and encourage us to become the-best-version-of-ourselves.
We need a diet of the mind just as much as we need a diet of the body. The ideas we feed our mind today tend to form our lives tomorrow.
Think of it in this way: We become the stories we listen to. It doesn’t matter if we get those stories from movies, music, television, newspapers, magazines, politicians, friends, or books—the stories we listen to form our lives.
If you want to understand any period in history, simply ask two questions: “Who were the storytellers?” and “What story were they telling?”
If you want to know how a nation will be different tomorrow from the way it was yesterday, find out how the stories that nation is listening to are different from the stories of yesterday.
If you discover that the stories we are listening to have less meaning, contain more violence, and, rather than inspire us and raise our standards, appeal more and more to the lowest common denominator, you can be sure that in the future our lives will have less meaning, contain more violence, and be more focused on the lowest common denominator.
We become the stories we listen to. But perhaps the more important question is, what stories are you listening to at this time in your life? What stories are forming your life?
Matthew Kelly
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