The Power To Change Your Life Lies In Your Life Story
It’s that time of year again. It’s the New Year, a time when most of us resolve that this year will be different. This is the year that we will finally make more money, get out of debt, lose weight, exercise more, eat better, read books, write books, mend broken relationships…the list goes on and on.
And each year, the hope-filled resolutions don’t last very long. Why? Is it lack of discipline? Lack of resolve? Were the plans too big? Something wrong with our mindsets? Our emotions? Our skills?
Maybe the real problem lies elsewhere.
Categories: Life Stories Tags: change your life, power to change, your life story
Welcome To “Authentic Life Stories”
One of the most powerful statements I have ever read is this Hopi Proverb:
The one who tells the stories rules the world.
Authentic Life Stories begins with this claim and then goes one step further.
The one who tells the stories rules the world…and the stories you tell yourself are the most powerful rulers of all.
Your Life Story
This means that real change in your life must begin with the stories that rule your life.
Why do the stories you tell yourself matter?
- Stories answer the question “Why?”
- Stories give you context.
- Stories give you meaning.
- Stories tell you what’s important.
- Stories teach you who you are.
- Stories tell you how to live.
Inherited Stories
For many of us, the stories we tell ourselves are not authentic stories, because they do not emerge from knowledge of our authentic selves.
Instead, they are inherited stories, passed down through families, cultures, nations, and religions. All of these inherited stories are like well-worn hand-me-down shoes that are too small and hurt our feet. But we wear them anyway, and hobble through life, wearing someone else’s old shoes.
Many of us were taught to be obedient to some outer authority, and so we go through our lives, attempting to make ourselves fit into old hand-me-down stories.
You can set as many goals as you want, make as many plans as you want, try as hard as you can, but if you don’t pay attention to the stories that rule your life, you are fighting a losing battle. The stories will rule you until you decide to rule your stories.
Stuck In A Rut
What is the result of these efforts to wear inherited stories that don’t fit our authentic selves? One of my friends has told me several times that her gravestone will read:
She never got it put together.
With these words, my friend expresses in words the high cost of using inherited stories to define the “Why?” of her life. She also—unwittingly—demonstrates how her own self-told stories diminish her, demean her, and rob her of the power to live the life she truly desires to live.
Authentic Life Stories is for anyone who goes through life with the same nagging thoughts. Will I ever get it put together? What must I do? Will I truly live before I die?
The Story Transformation Process Solution
What’s the solution to living life with inherited stories that that keep you stuck and struggling? You replace those stories with authentic stories.
Authentic stories are original stories. “Authentic” (from Greek, authentikos) has the sense of acting on your own authority.
There is a direct connection between knowing who you are and the stories you tell yourself about your life.
The wisest words ever spoken in human history are these:
Know yourself.
You cannot live authentically if you don’t know who you are.
When you live your life “ruled” by your own authentic life stories, you are the one who chooses the stories that allow you to be truly yourself.
If you claim the authority to live your life according to your own authentic stories, based on knowing who you really are, the result can transform your life.
The purpose of “Authentic life Stories: Transform Your Stories To Change Your Life,” is to teach the “Story Transformation Process” that shows you how to transform the inherited stories that keep you stuck and struggling into stories that allow you to live your own authentic life story.
Dr. Kalinda Rose Stevenson
The Story Transformer
Creator of “The Story Transformation Process”
