What story are you writing?

We all crave a good story, just like we crave a good life.  After all, what is a life but a story: a narrative that includes a plot, characters, some sort of crisis, and some sort of potential resolution.

Think about the components of a great story.  It has to have a plot.  It has a protagonist.  It has a villain.  It has a huge crisis or problem that needs to be overcome.  It involves some sort of journey of identity on the part of the protagonist ... forcing her to go through something she otherwise would have not, and through those extraordinary circumstance to emerge a different person.  The characters have to face their fears with extraordinary amounts of courage.  Most of the time something is at stake... maybe even death ... that's what makes the story so interesting.  Most of the time there is some sort of romance, the hero that discovers a love that makes the battles worth fighting and the adventures worth undergoing.

A question that has haunted me ever since I read this absolutely fantastic book two years ago is this one: "am I living a good story?"  
Are you?  Here's some questions I've been asking myself lately to help me live a better story:

• Are you fighting a battle that's worth fighting? 
• Are you pursuing a love that makes it worth it? 
• Are you confronting your fears or are you submitting to them? 
• Are you striving towards purpose or are you coasting towards complacency? 
• Are you risking anything at all? 
• Does the life that you're living parody the dreams that you're dreaming? 
• Are you creating anything or are you consuming everything? 
• Most of all: are you living for a larger Story than your story?