Shift #6: Change Your Story, Change Your Life

Change Your Story, Change Your Life

It’s the stories you tell, that shape the decisions you make, that shape the life you lead.

What’s the continual story you keep telling yourself. “Well if it hadn’t been for so and so I could have…. or “you know I just didn’t have the time….”, or “I’m just too old to….”, or “I did have the chance you know but… “, or “I was afraid that…” and the list goes on. We all tell stories.

We repeat stories we’ve heard and told all of our lives. Our internal ‘mind chatter’ convinces us and eventually over time makes us believe that they are true. Listen to the stories you tell yourself and others. Remember when you were a kid, what did you hear:

“Oh don’t be silly, you can’t do that you’re just a slow learner, what do you say now, ‘I’ve always been a slow learner…”

“You’ll never write a book, you can’t even put a sentence together”, what do you say now, “I’ll never be able to write a book I’m no author…”

“You’re useless at maths”, what do you say now, “I’m no good with numbers…”

And so on, you get the picture…

Who decided these stories were true? Who decides if they’re still true?

I heard a lovely story but I can’t remember where, it sort of goes like this… For years a down and out had been living the streets, one day he noticed a sign in a window saying that MENSA were paying $25 for anyone to take a test. The guy of course went for the test thinking that this would be easy money, he had nothing to lose. So he took the test, got his money and as he was walking out he was called back by the adjudicator: “sir would you mind taking the test again?”, “sure will I get paid $25 again”, he took the test again thinking that he had clearly done something wrong anyway he got paid. Guess what, yep he was asked to do it again …. the guy thought ok something’s up, “what’s wrong have I failed again?”, “no” said the adjudicator , “we’ve never seen scores like this before, I’m the one that wrote the test and this is incredible, we had to make sure you that this wasn’t a fluke, these are the highest core we have ever seen!”

 The down and out had the highest MENSA score ever recorded; he later became the head of MENSA. For years the down and out had been told that he was not clever enough, he had believed all his life that he was totally inadequate, it’s the story he was told and the story he told himself. That morning he had walked into that place as a loser, and walked out as a genius. That day changed his life; he had a different story to tell.

Think about it, the future is only a story we’ve made up. We all have a story about the future and how we believe or hope it will be. We make it up in the present. If we make it up all up anyway, why not create what we prefer and live it as if it were true. This is a very simple shift and yet profound process or creating what we want to achcive.
Don’t let your current or past story define you if that’s not who you choose to be now, it’s not set in stone, you can decide what story you want to live and tell in life.