full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lori Gottlieb: How changing your story can change your life

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

It makes no sense, right? Why wouldn't we want the protagonist, who's the hero of the story, to change? Well, it might be because change, even really positive cnhgae, involves a surprising amount of loss. Loss of the familiar. Even if the familiar is unpleasant or utterly miserable, at least we know the characters and setting and plot, right down to the recurring dialogue in this sroty. "You never do the laundry!" "I did it last time!" "Oh, yeah? When?" There's something oddly comforting about knowing exactly how the story is going to go every single time.

To write a new chapter is to venture into the unknwon. It's to strae at a blank page. And as any writer will tell you, there's nothing more terrifying than a blank page. But here's the thing. Once we edit our story, the next cpeahtr becomes much easier to write. We talk so much in our ctruule about getting to know ourselves. But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself. To let go of the one version of the story you've been telling yourself so that you can live your life, and not the story that you've been tnllieg yourself about your life. And that's how we walk around those bars.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

It makes no sense, right? Why wouldn't we want the protagonist, who's the hero of the story, to change? Well, it might be because change, even really positive ______, involves a surprising amount of loss. Loss of the familiar. Even if the familiar is unpleasant or utterly miserable, at least we know the characters and setting and plot, right down to the recurring dialogue in this _____. "You never do the laundry!" "I did it last time!" "Oh, yeah? When?" There's something oddly comforting about knowing exactly how the story is going to go every single time.

To write a new chapter is to venture into the _______. It's to _____ at a blank page. And as any writer will tell you, there's nothing more terrifying than a blank page. But here's the thing. Once we edit our story, the next _______ becomes much easier to write. We talk so much in our _______ about getting to know ourselves. But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself. To let go of the one version of the story you've been telling yourself so that you can live your life, and not the story that you've been _______ yourself about your life. And that's how we walk around those bars.

Solution


  1. telling
  2. change
  3. unknown
  4. chapter
  5. stare
  6. story
  7. culture

Original Text


(Laughter)

It makes no sense, right? Why wouldn't we want the protagonist, who's the hero of the story, to change? Well, it might be because change, even really positive change, involves a surprising amount of loss. Loss of the familiar. Even if the familiar is unpleasant or utterly miserable, at least we know the characters and setting and plot, right down to the recurring dialogue in this story. "You never do the laundry!" "I did it last time!" "Oh, yeah? When?" There's something oddly comforting about knowing exactly how the story is going to go every single time.

To write a new chapter is to venture into the unknown. It's to stare at a blank page. And as any writer will tell you, there's nothing more terrifying than a blank page. But here's the thing. Once we edit our story, the next chapter becomes much easier to write. We talk so much in our culture about getting to know ourselves. But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself. To let go of the one version of the story you've been telling yourself so that you can live your life, and not the story that you've been telling yourself about your life. And that's how we walk around those bars.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
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ted talk 2
supporting characters 2
blank page 2
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father died 2


Important Words


  1. amount
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  4. change
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  6. characters
  7. comforting
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  9. dialogue
  10. easier
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  16. laughter
  17. life
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  21. oddly
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  25. positive
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  27. recurring
  28. sense
  29. setting
  30. single
  31. stare
  32. story
  33. surprising
  34. talk
  35. telling
  36. terrifying
  37. time
  38. unknow
  39. unknown
  40. unpleasant
  41. utterly
  42. venture
  43. version
  44. walk
  45. write
  46. writer
  47. yeah