Reality is negotiable. Your life is what you make it.
What we experience as life is a series of stimuli and how we respond to them. How we respond is determined by the stories we tell ourselves. None of them are true. They are what we make them. Almost all of our stories are formed at an extremely young age. We mirror the stories of our parents, family and community. They have been running for so long that they are practically automatic and we are hardly aware of them at all. We simply take them to be true, when they are anything but.
Make space between stimulus and response. Be the witnessing presence to the story that instigates the automatic response. Hold it up to the light, scrutinise it. Does it help you? Does it hinder you? Does it move you towards your goals or away from them?
No stories are real so you are free to choose your own. Choose stories that empower you. Shape reality to suit you. Be aware of your stories, write them own. In order to rewrite them you first need to recognise your faulty stories.
Life. It’s the sum total of your experiences within reality. You can have a small life or a BIG life. This is all determiend by your stories, your recognition of them, your response to them and your choice of story.
Stimulus ⇒ What does this mean to me? What else could this mean? ⇒ Choose your response.
‘Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.’ – Hanlon’s Razor
You always have the power to choose your response.
‘Everything you see around you in this thing we call life was created by somebody no smarter than you.’ – Steve Jobs
Recognise this fact and realise that you can create something for other people. That you can build a life for yourself that fits your authentic self, not the one that your malfunctioning stories have created.
You have the knowledge.
You have the tools.
You just need to move, to take action.
Fear will try to hold you still, but this is just one of your stories. Write it down, scrutinise it. Realise it is ridiculous and does not serve you. By writing it down you lessen its power over you. But also realise that the fear will never truly go away. You have to learn to ‘dance with the fear’ (Seth Godin).
Work out what you want.
Don’t limit yourself.
Plan how you will get it.
Watch how you respond as you write it, think about it. This will give you an idea of your limiting beliefs, of your faulty stories.
Barefoot Daddy 