Some of the best stories are those that have never been told.
Example?
‘One day I’m going to…’ or ‘When I retire there’ll be enough time to…’
We all tell ourselves stories most of the time. They give us a handle on our world. One of my current favourites is: ‘When I’m fit enough I’ll be able to beat my husband at tennis.’ I’m recovering from an abdominal operation which makes walking to the end of the driveway a challenge. So even this sounds like an impossible dream right now. But it’s how I keep myself motivated to walk for 5 minutes extra every day.
And that’s a good thing while it remains an achievable goal which I’m gently committed to.
But what happens when the dream becomes pure fantasy and gets stored just out of reach on an inner shelf, alongside all the other dusty ‘if onlys’? It will soon start to take up valuable energy and taunt me into a vague sense of dissatisfaction.
The common thread that runs through these types of stories is the word ‘enough’. And it’s a word we tend to play fast and loose with. ‘When I get enough time, space, money, love, exercise…’ Whatever the commodity it feels like there’s not enough of it in the here and now.
And that’s sad. Because ‘enough’ is not a word that can ever be defined by a dictionary or even another person. It’s a quantity or quality that we need to determine ourselves.
Unless we change our relationship with the concept of enough we’ll keep pushing it out there ahead of us into never-never land.
So how do you rewrite the story you’re telling yourself and give it a happy ending?
I’ll be covering this topic in much more depth in a workshop I’ll be hosting at the Mind Body Spirit Festival in London’s Earl’s Court next Sunday, 25th May and I’d love to see you there. But if you can’t make it, here’s the summary:
1. Decide there is already enough of whatever it is you feel you’re lacking. You’re a child of the Universe! There will always be enough time, money, love and opportunity once you fully commit to something. But it will only ‘magically’ happen once you commit to it.
2. Take one step at a time. You’ve no doubt heard this before but breaking your happy ending into bite size chunks really helps avoid overwhelm. The steps can be as small as you like – remember you’re the storyteller.
When I was writing my first book, ‘Change Your Words, Change Your World’ I would imagine my first book signing in vivid detail. I’d tune into the excitement and energy around the event and picture queues of smiling people holding my book. Then I’d look backwards in time from that end point and ask my mind to describe all the necessary steps I’d taken to get there. Like finding an agent, a publisher, an editor. Writing a blurb. Creating an overall structure for the book and each chapter. And finally I would think about how many words I could realistically commit to writing every day. When you do this, start really small – even 100 words a day soon mounts up – because you can always scale up if you need to. The important thing is to make it easy on yourself.
3. Be your own best friend. Every time you hit a deadline/lifeline, throw a private party! Do a little victory dance in your living room. Give yourself a high five or a hug. Reward your genius with something that makes you happy. Appreciate and express thanks for all the ways in which you have – and are – enough. Within a very short time you’ll start to notice that the extra time, money, love and opportunities magically become available to you.
And that’s it. Three easy steps towards a happy ending. Thanks for staying with me and I hope it helps! As always I’d love to hear your stories…
Click HERE for more info about the Mind Body Spirit Festival!
