Change your Story!!!

Given my love for narrative, it is no wonder I loved, loved, loved this article and immediately wanted to share it.  The article submission in Psychology Today was written by Dr. Bakari Akil II - Assistant Professor of Communication, where he posits, the way we define our life affects our circumstances.  Where have I heard that before???  Of course it does.  


The article makes the connection between conversations and outcomes, stories we tell ourselves and the results we produce.  By talking to ourselves we affirm ourselves, what we believe, and how we see ourselves.  We either agree that we have awesome possibility, we don't have what it takes, or some variation of either theme. When we talk to ourselves, we speak life into our words... and bring truth to being.  I urge you to keep in mind that the story you tell will become your reality.  Our daily conversations can energize us to keep going, or paralyze us and making it difficult to move.  If you find yourself stuck, Dr. Akil's advice is to change your story. I wholly agree.


Change the Story!  

"Examine what you are telling yourself. What you have accepted, are accepting and will accept in the future is based on who you think you are. To change that you have to consciously alter the story of whom you think you are to fit the concept of who you want to be. Then act accordingly!"

                                                                                                                  Bakari Akil II, Ph.D.

 Read my blog - The Power in Self Talk or click to learn more about the theme of changing your story.

Power in Self-Talk

So many times I've heard people say the power of life and death is in the tongue.  (That is actually a verse from the Bible - Proverbs 18:21) I would take it a little further to say there is power in the self-talk we create, or the story to which we give life.  If that is so... then it must mean that what we say can breathe life into reality. Wow!!

Helping you find Your Inner Winner© is a journey to which I've now committed... both in the work-setting and in your personal life.  So many of us find ourselves stuck in a narrative that is leading us down a dead-end street. Is that really where we want to be? Locked in one of life's cul-de-sacs with limited options and feeling like the only way out is to retrace the tortured route that got us to 'stuck'?

I'm proposing that the way we talk... and the story / narrative we create for ourselves will change the way we think. It will change the way we think about ourselves, the way we think about our past, and the way we think about what is possible.

Self-talk is a potent pill.  The way we talk to and about ourself can open up possibilities or it can lead us to feeling stuck.

Yuck!!

That is why I'm challenging each of us to revise our self-talk and change our narrative.

Want to test the power of self-talk? Think of a time when your own self-talk predicted the way things turned out for you.  I would love for you to share that story.