Narrative Ownership
Becoming the Protagonist of Your Life
I’m Brent Diggs. I write and speak about how psychology and storytelling help people make sense of their lives and move forward with more direction.
Most of that work centers on a single concept:
Narrative Ownership – taking responsibility for the story your life is becoming.
Your Life Is Already a Story.
The question is whether you’re directing it.
People tend to think their lives are shaped by circumstances, but in reality, they’re defined by how their experience is interpreted, remembered, and acted on over time.
Story isn’t just for entertainment — it’s the mind’s native format.
We use it to make sense of setbacks, relationships, who we are becoming, and what it all means.
This leads to one central idea:
When you take ownership of the story you’re living inside, you can begin making the kinds of changes that improve your life over time.
You put your effort into things that matter.
You understand why the struggle matters.
You make decisions that move your life forward.
That’s the starting point.
How These Ideas Take Shape
I work these ideas out in public — through essays, conversations, and real life.
Some ideas stay rough. Others become clearer. A few become tools over time.
I start with questions about responsibility, choices, and direction and follow them long enough to see what holds up in real life.
How I Work
Studying Stories
Through psychology, film, and narrative theory, I study how the stories people live inside shape their choices — and where those stories lead them wrong.
Developing Ways of Thinking
I look for recurring patterns in how people make sense of what happens to them, take responsibility, and change over time — then put those patterns into clear language people can use.
Applying the Ideas
Through essays and conversations, I work out practical ways to apply these ideas in real situations, where people are trying to understand their lives and decide what to do next.
Core Ideas
A small set of ideas that appear again and again across this work.
Responsibility Without Blame
Your life changes when you take responsibility for your responses instead of waiting for circumstances to change.
You still face limits, but you decide how to move forward within them.
Meaning Over Time
A comfortable life can still feel hollow over time.
Meaning develops through effort, commitment, and staying with something that matters.
Growth Through Adversity
Struggle and failure aren’t interruptions to the story. They’re often what force you to grow into someone who can handle what comes next.
Relationships That Shape You
The people you stay close to influence who you become.
Over time, the right relationships deepen your life and expand what becomes possible, helping you grow in ways you can’t on your own.
Clear Thinking in Uncertainty
Most of life’s important decisions are made without full clarity.
Bias, assumptions, and emotional reactions affect how you interpret situations — and those interpretations influence the choices that shape your life over time.
Essays and Articles
Long-form writing where these ideas are developed in depth and connected to real situations.
Browse the essay archive
Full Mental Bracket Podcast
Long-form conversations on psychology, storytelling, and the narratives that shape how we live.
Ideas are tested here before they’re trusted.
About
I use psychology and story to develop practical ways of thinking about growth and change.
I believe many people struggle because the stories they’re living inside no longer fit the lives they’re trying to build.
My work helps people see the story they’re already living and take responsibility for the direction it goes next.
Your life is already a story in motion. This is simply a place to think more carefully about how it continues.