“I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain, to see for certain, what I thought I knew.”
The opening line, of course, to ‘Any dream will do’ from the musical ‘Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat’.
Cultured me 😉
We all do it.
Draw a curtain.
Hiding the truth.
Telling ourselves stories.
Stories that make us feel better.
But that hold us back.
When we first talk to people about ‘stories’ the usually don’t quite see it.
They’re used to thinking that the thoughts in their head are mostly concrete facts.
But, ultimately, pretty much every thought that goes through our head is a story.
It’s our interpretation of the information in front of us.
Affected by our experiences, beliefs, etc.
Very little we tell ourselves is an absolute concrete fact.
Things that have no room for interpretation don’t stay in our minds long.
And we verbalise then even less.
I know perfectly well that I can’t fly, shoot lasers from my eyes, outrun a speeding train or leap over tall buildings in a single bound.
Unfortunately 🙁
So it’s hardly worth thinking about or mentioning.
When we realise that our thoughts are, essentially, stories……..
It’s empowering.
It enables us to question them.
We might still come to the same conclusions.
We might still decide that story is the right one for us.
But we might realise another story is better for us.
Any time someone says that they can’t lose weight / get healthier because of time or money?
That’s just a story.
An appealing one, of course.
But a story non the less.
In this world of 7 billion people there will be plenty with less time, money, commitments, etc who’ve lost weight and / or got healthier.
That’s not designed to make people feel bad.
Just make them aware what they’re telling themselves is just a story.
Another version of the same story might be “I only have a finite amount of time, and I’d rather spend it watching TV and checking Facebook then on getting slimmer and healthier.”
Or “I only have a certain amount of money, and I’d rather spend it on cars, clothes, eating and drinking out, holidays, etc then on getting slimmer and healthier”.
Both fine.
We’d never dream of telling someone how they should spend their time and money.
None of our business!
But, chances are, when someone sees their thoughts for the stories they are………
It helps them remove self imposed limitations.
It helps them write new stories.
Stories like “I only have a finite amount of time, and it’s a good swap to sacrifice some TV and Facebook time to get slimmer and healthier.”
Or “I only have a certain amount of money, and I’d rather spend less on cars, clothes, eating and drinking out, holidays, etc so that I can get slimmer and healthier”.
There’s a really easy way to help you realise if something you say, or someone else says, is true.
Would it stand up in a court of law.
If you were in front of a judge.
And we’re being cross examined.
Would what’s being said stand up as an undeniable fact?
Anything less is a story.
A story you can rewrite 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Taking the wife to see Miss Saigon in a few weeks’ Hall and Matt ‘Starlight Express’ Nicholson
P.S. As, always, myrise.co.uk/briefing-meeting if you want to see how we help people re-write their stories and help them get great results, more easily than they ever thought possible.
