If you’re a living breathing human on this planet, then you have stories that you tell yourself, often subconsciously, about everything. Our thoughts, our beliefs, our perceptions…are all based on stories. Stories that we were taught, saw or heard, or stories that we created in our minds. But have you ever stopped & really thought about the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves…
THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES: FACT OR FICTION?
Not all of our personal stories are National Enquirer level fiction, often they are 100% accurate. For example, right now I’m going through the whole process of retiring from public school teaching and seriously my friends, I have no f-ing idea what I’m doing or how to do it.
But many times since I made the decision, I’ve either told myself or actually have said out loud to several people, “I’ll figure it out because that’s what I do…I figure shit out as I go along & it always works out. I’m good at it.” And that is an absolutely true, fact based assessment of how I’ve lived my entire life. Big, scary seemingly insurmountable things pop up and I. Figure. It. Out. Always, every single time.
Now I am positive that if you think about it, you can come up with stories that you tell yourself that are bang on accurate too. You know it, you’ve done it & you’ve got the evidence to prove it. Voila, true story.
The little monkey wrench in this story telling scenario is this…many of the stories that we tell ourselves are straight up inaccurate, made-up, fictional nonsense with absolutely no verifiable accuracy in reality. However, we believe them anyway. They’re stories that seem like they’ve always been there repeating on a loop. We hear them in our heads, tell them to ourselves & often say them out loud. We wrote these fictional nuggets based on our perception of a negative situation we experienced, cruel words that were spoken to us, or the efforts of someone else who was attempting to tear us down.
It doesn’t matter where the stories came from, what matters is our perception & internalization of the lies. Yes, we do indeed lie to ourselves, maybe not on purpose, but we do.
Every single time you tell yourself that you aren’t smart enough, good enough, worthy enough…whatever your particular mean girl story is, you are lying to yourself. So instead of lying to yourself, how about maybe rewriting your story & beginning a new chapter?
YOU’RE THE AUTHOR
And here’s where the fun starts…your story & the stories you tell yourself are YOURS! You own the copyright, the patent, the intellectual property rights: YOU OWN YOUR STORY. And that my friend, means that you can rewrite it any way you damn well please.
You for sure can’t change your past, but you can change the story you tell yourself about it. The next time one of those tired old pieces of fiction pop into your head take a minute & sit with it. Question it…
- Is it really true?
- What evidence is there to prove that it’s true?
- Is the evidence solid & real or is it your perception?
- What evidence is there to disprove the story?
- Is this story serving you in any way?
- Is it the story that you want to tell?
Once you’ve determined that story is indeed nothing but bullshit, then rewrite your truth. Craft your next chapter in your own words…in your own style…in your own voice. And never forget, you’re the author so you can rewrite your story any time you please…
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