One of the most important things about us is the story we tell ourselves, the overarching narrative within which we embed our daily actions. What story are you telling yourself? Is it helping or hurting you?
We love movies, and great television shows, and amazing novels so much because we each live a story, our own story, and these are media where stories are told. We viscerally understand other people's stories because of our own. That's why nothing touches us like a story.
Hollywood producer Peter Gruber wrote a book a few years back called Tell to Win. In it, he recounts that every business meeting he ever went into armed with facts and statistics was a failure, and he never got what he wanted, while, by stark contrast, every meeting he went into and told a great story was a stunning success, sometimes far beyond what he could have imagined. Stories have power.
The story we tell ourselves about our own lives has great power for good, or for ill. Do you empower and embolden and encourage yourself by the story you tell yourself in the quiet of your own mind, as well as in your words to other people? Or do you weaken your own prospects by a narrative that isn't right? Have you let other people or circumstances hijack your story? No one can know you as well as you can, if you're completely honest with yourself and relentlessly strip away the little self-deceptions that can so easily creep into any life. No one else is in a position to write your story for you - not in this world. So, make sure that you're the one who tells your story, and tells it powerfully, to open up the vast possibilities of the future that lie in wait for your particular talents, experiences, and sensibilities.
There is no other you. And there is no other story exactly like yours. Be sure that your story is worthy of you, at your best and your finest. Then, you can become what you're meant to be.
