Your Story
Posted on April 16, 2010 with 1 comment"Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they're yours."
So writes Richard Bach in his book Illusions.
Over coffee, at dinner, in the break-room or teacher’s lounge, on the phone or computer - how often do you find yourself telling the same story about something annoying or awful that happened, something ugly in our world or your life? Traffic, politics, pollen; over and over this is so often how we connect and bond. You ask someone "How was your day?" You expect a sigh, shrug, and story of weary and woe. If someone replies with joy and excitement, we look at them as if they’re a bit strange and not being "real."
I don't know, maybe it's just me. I'm about to release a new record, hit the road, and launch a new business venture all in the same month. This trifecta has made me very aware of the importance of the stories I tell myself about myself. Am I the hero or the victim in my own narrative?
“Forget about what was and what will be see only the task that is.” – Legend of the Seeker
I saw myself in a friend’s story this week. She’s got a huge meeting - HUGE - with some people that have the ability to really launch her career to the stars. She was talking about her uncertainty and fear – you know – “I don’t know why they’re meeting with me, what am I gonna do, I hope I don’t screw this all up.” Finally I said stop! Enough! They’re meeting with you because you’ve earned it, you’ve earned it by rocking at what you do, and rocking is exactly how you’ll show up in the meeting.
As Marianne Williamson puts it “your playing small does not serve the world.”
The story you live is the one you tell yourself. So what am I tell myself about myself? What are you telling yourself about yourself? Not that challenging things that happen in life should be denied, but what I tell myself about something that happens in my world seems to be where I really start running into trouble – or triumph.
As my friend Mark Adam Miller (a great country singer and songwriter btw) recently posted on FB, “if you live with love, you will love. if you live with hope, you will have hope. if you live with fear, you will fear. that lifetime effect starts with kissing your babies goodnight. spread the love...”
Maybe you don’t have babies, but the point is the same. The story you are living is the one you’re telling. What’s your story?
Oh, and, there’s awesome news! You’ve got the pen and can flip the script at any time with a changed thought.
Anyhow, that’s what feels real for me this week.
I’ll leave you with one last quote that popped up on the Dead Poets Society FB fan page this week:
"Guilt is past fear, worry is future fear, live in the present." - Taylor Flack
That’s where the whole story really Is.