Now, today is a new day. We’re taking our story and looking at the message. What was the message that you conveyed in that story? What’s the overarching purpose of that story? What is it illustrating? Is it illustrating hardship? Is it illustrating when you’re telling it? Is it invoking power, are you standing in your power, or is it justifying how tough your life was? If it’s not justifying something positive, what is it justifying? What is it telling the story of? And then, if it’s not empowering, and that’s what you’re supposed to be choosing, a disempowering story, why do you keep choosing it? Why do you keep telling it? What’s in it for you?

So if I go back to a story that I told over and over that wasn’t empowering, why was I telling it? Well, first of all, the meaning of the story was I was wronged, I was a victim. I was a victim of circumstance. And then why am I telling that? Well, in my case, I’m justifying the actions I took. I am looking for pity. I’m looking to be surrounded by understanding and “poor you” in that story. “Wow. Wow, what you went through.” So this isn’t empowering. And when I look at the gift and I tell the story, if I choose to tell it again… I don’t need to tell it anymore unless I’m illustrating a point.

But if I do choose to tell it again, I can talk about the gift, and this is the gift that I received and where I am now because of it: I realize I wouldn’t have left that job if it wouldn’t have been somewhat traumatic, because I felt very responsible and connected to the students that I was teaching. The gift and the way the end of my job presented itself is I learned this, this, this and this, and it’s opened the doors here and here in my life. So keep doing the work. This is challenging and it’s easier just to keep telling the story. You don’t need to tell the story. When you release the story of your past that’s not empowering, and basically when you release your stories about your past, you’re focused on the now and your future. You can stand freshly in the moment.

So, dig into your stories further, find out what the message is. Find out what your motivation was for telling it. See the gift, think of the gift. How can you tell the story with the gift included? And then practice telling the story, that’s going to be your next step. Practice leaving the old story behind and telling the story that includes the gift, so it’s empowering to you and empowering to the people that you tell it to, that you share it with. Have a beautiful day engaging with your story.