Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. When a movie is filmed, each scene is scripted, and all the actors have memorized their lines to play a role that was written for them.

If things don't go according to plan, the director yells cut and everyone returns to their places to try again until the director is happy.

This is true of movies and television shows, but in real life you are not a director and there is no script.

Nobody is under contract to play any role

according to how you think they should. Not your parents, not your children, not

your friends, not strangers, not world leaders or business owners or anyone else.

When I think about it, I realize every time I've been frustrated in life.

It has always been because I thought of myself as the director and all of my

resentments stemmed from getting upset with people foregoing off script or not playing

their role according to me.

Conversely, when I reflect on all the joyous moments in my life,

they weren't when everything went according to plan,

as one would think.

The highlight reel of my life is surprisingly filled with all the times

I wasn't sitting in the director's chair. When we make peace with the fact that a script doesn't

exist anywhere but in our own minds, we realize that nothing

and nobody could ever be off script.

People are just being people.

All we need to do is retire the director within us and not only would we be

happier, but so would all the people we've been trying to manipulate shame and guilt into playing

a role. Life is a choose your own adventure for everybody.

This means there will inevitably be villains and heroes,

...