If you have struggled to make year over year progress, forget the resolutions this New Year’s and instead focus on the stories you tell yourself that might be holding you back. Here is a systematic approach to transforming your year one story at a time.
First, identify the stories you tell yourself
Carefully examine the most pillars of your life; your physical well being, the health of your family and your relationships, your business, your finances, your spiritual well-being or whatever is most important to your definition of success. Then, for each category, is there something holding you back?
Second, challenge the story.
The truth is, you are a great storyteller. You weave compelling, intricate, persuasive stories that you tell yourself. As a result of your story prowess, the stories become so ingrained, so automatic they don’t sound like stories anymore, they sound like fact. Once you identify possible story culprits, challenge it. Ask yourself, what if this fact is actually just a story after all?
Third, change the story.
Once you reveal an old story for what it truly is, the next step is to change it. Easier said than done? Perhaps. But there are two strategies that work best to rewrite the stories that aren’t serving you.
The first, is to find a replacement story. Once you challenge the story you’ve adopted, seek out a version of the story that you like. Look to people you admire who have faced similar circumstances; what’s their story? For example go to your neighbours, parents or friends and ask for their stories so you can use them as an outline for your own.
The other option for rewriting it is to just scribble out what’s there and start writing something new in its place.
We hope your 2018 New Year will be as happy as you want it to be!
Via Inc.
