I recently followed the advice of one of my favourite Youtubers Ali Abdaal to read the book “A miilion miles in a thousand years” by Donald Miller. It is basically about the author himself who describes how he learned what good stories are about while writing a movie script for “Blue like jazz”, one of his former books.
As he has never written a movie script before he works together with two colleagues who gradually explain to him that writing a movie is not like writing a book. Instead of describing what people are thinking and feeling, everything needs to be shown. Everything needs to be made perceivable for the viewers. From attending a seminar his colleagues advised him to visit, he also learns that good stories are usually about “a person who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it”. By reflecting about stories in general and projecting everything he learns about writing a good story onto his own life he quickly realizes, that his life as an author is actually quite boring and stupid.
He realizes for example that he never really had goals in his life and that he never actually went on a mission that was not necessarily going to succeed. He never faced the possibility of failure and he never took on any challenge. Thus he suddenly decides to make a change to his life and takes on three adventures at the same time. They challenge him emotionally and physically and change his way of thinking about life completely.
At this point I do not want to go too much into detail as I do not want to spoil anybody. I must say that I really enjoyed reading this book as it is not only teaching a lot about life in general but it is also hilarious as Donald Miller describes his thoughts and experiences very directly to the reader which makes the whole story appear like a funny and ironic but also insightful monolog.
Favorite quotes from the book:
“When you stop expecting people to become perfect, you can like them for who they are. And when you stop expecting material possesisions to complete you, you’d be surprised at how much pleasure you get in material possessions. And when you stop expecting God to end all your troubles you’d be surprised at how much you like spending time with God”
“Before I learned about story, I was becoming a fatalist. I was starting to believe you couldn’t feel meaning in life because there wasn’t any meaning to be found. But I don’t believe that anymore. It’s a share, because you can make good money being a writer and a fatalist. Nietzzsche did it with relative success. Not personal success, mind you, because he rarely got out of bed. But he’s huge with twenty-something intellectuals. He’s the Justing Timberlake of depressed Germans, and there are a lot of depressed Germans.”
Key takeaway:
Usually it’s the hard things in life that are worth pusuing because striving for them means you need to overcome conflict and once you get them you will be wiser, gather unforgettable experiences or grow physically or emotionally.
Some times we are just trees in the story of forest and should not worry about things we cannot understand and influence anymore. Instead we should focus on what we can influence and start writing our own story within our reach.
Astounding fact:
The movie, Donald Miller was writing with his colleagues actually got rejected by many professional film companies who did not want to waste money on producing the it. With the help of two random people the authors managed however to raise a record sum via kickstarter and produced the movie thereafter.
My Rating: 9/10
Summarizingly, I can say that I would honestly recommend this book to everyone I know. It is written in easy language, tells an exciting story, has its funny parts in every chapter and teaches a lot about our own lives. It earns a stron 9/10 in my personal rating.
Did you read “A million miles in a thousand years” too? Make sure to leave a comment. I’d love to engage in a discussion with you guys.
