Change Your Story, Change Your Life - Anthony Robins

Mortgage crisis. Credit crunch. Slow job growth. Sluggish economy. Gas over $4 a gallon. We don’t need to look far to see that these are tough times, a winter-like belt-tightening in the middle of the summer.

With so many challenges facing nearly everyone, it becomes easier to tell ourselves that things are beyond our control. The stories our brain manufactures build and build, and before you know it, discouragement can settle in, blocking us from seeing a vision beyond the obstacles.

Whether we realize it or not, we’re always telling ourselves a story, in good times or bad. The investor who makes millions on the stock market’s worst day creates a story of success before he even begins to apply the skills of his trade. The middle manager who longs for a career in real estate—and does nothing about it—tells herself that there’s no point in trying because of the shaky market.

The only thing that keeps us from what we really want in life is the story we tell ourselves about why we can’t have it. Life will provide plenty of reasons to be fearful. What we need to do is learn how to play with fear. We can do this by taking a closer look at the stories we create in our minds.

Our stories become a filter for what we will experience. Regardless of what’s happening in our lives at the moment, we all weave narratives. We tell ourselves stories that explain where we’ve been and where we’re going; who we are and who we’re becoming.

It would be easy to presume that our life’s events dictate the stories that run our lives, but just like writers who make adjustments to their scripts, we can change our stories at any time, and we often do, for better or for worse. Sometimes these changes come from the external world—the stories that others tell about you that can either be true or false—or the stories that you selectively edit, tell others, and become a reflection of your identity in the world.

External stories can have a significant impact on how we play our roles, but it’s the internal story that affects us even more. Whatever you keep telling yourself is the real indicator on how you will respond to life’s various scenes, and thus how your life will unfold. Imagine what you can do when you toss that old story of fear or failure to the recycling bin, and really focus on creating the story you want to develop.

We must remember that we have the power to make choices along the way. Regardless of the subject, the real question isn’t where the story is coming from, or whether or not it’s even true. The real question is: What do you want to become? What story do you want to create for the future? It’s a decision we’re always making moment to moment.

Why continue replaying a story that produces fear and powerlessness when you—the writer, director, and producer of your life—can re-write the script at anytime? There’s no guarantee that you’ll get the Hollywood ending, but at the very least you can create new happenings for your character; new romance, new thrills, more action, more adventure; a conscious participant in the controlled chaos that is life.