What’s Your Story?

Most people love a good story. In fact, people have been telling stories as long as we have existed. You may know about the cave paintings at various locations in France, which depict human and animal figures. They go back as far as 27,000 years ago. These simple pieces of folk art seem to tell  stories about an event of some kind. That is, stories such as, “Hey, let me show you how I hunted and killed this deer!” In addition, every culture on earth has a creation story and stories intended to help us understand our world. 

Why do we love stories? Perhaps we relate to the characters because we see ourselves in them. At other times, we dive into a fantasy about being a special character: hero, a spy, a scientist, artist or someone with unique powers.

Now, in addition to all this, everyone has a story about his or her own life. How do we know this? Well, when a bad thing happened, you may have heard someone say, “That’s the story of my life!” or “Just my luck.”

It’s interesting to look into this, because success or failure in life can depend on how a person sees his life story. If the story is, “I’m unlucky”, how will that person be motivated to work hard towards a goal or to take a risk, such as spending money on advanced education or training? If a person believes that life is unfair, and she is always getting the short end of the stick, how can she be confident that she will be rewarded for her hard work?

Another problem arises when a person views his life story as permanent. He sees himself as a character in a script that someone else wrote, and he has no control over his destiny. He is living out the plot and theme of that script. His story might be, “I’m just a pawn in the game of life.”

So, here’s a question. What if a person could change her story? How could that happen? For a person who has been virtually brain-washed to accept strict limitations on her abilities and opportunities, what would it take to help her break away and be free to succeed? In some rare cases a person might be convinced by means of talk therapy to take on a new challenge and to prove to himself that his life story is not always true, and in fact it may be totally false. 

In many cases, however, people need something in addition to talk therapy. Something that will reach their inner selves, which is where deep-seated negative believes have been stored. There are several such approaches to this kind of work. If this article speaks to you, and you are now ready to start reversing the impact of your self-defeating life story, please feel free to call. The number is (219) 309-3928. I would be honored to be of service.

For more thoughts click Build Your Self-Esteem

Thanks for reading!