Episode 1: The Stories We Tell

Welcome to episode 1. I am so glad you are here and are joining me on this adventure!

I wanted to start this podcast off by talking about stories. Come on! Who doesn’t love a Good Story!!

I was raised on stories.

Bear stories

Fish stories

Horse stories

And some of these stories even had the pictures to prove they happened.

My grandpa was a storyteller.

My dad was a storyteller. – you know those “When I was a little boy stories…” they were my favorite!

But lately I have realized that all of us are storytellers even if we don’t take the stage to tell these stories. We are all interpreting the world around us and making sense of it through the stories we tell ourselves. We interpret why others are behaving the way they are and why our experience in life is what it is. We all have these stories.

Have you ever noticed that authors seem to write one type of story?

So a romance novelist – usually writes romantic stories.

Mystery writers – stick to mysteries

Seldom do authors change genre completely.

Really what would you do if your favorite western writer came out with a science fiction novel…. Right! Most just stick to telling the type of story they have perfected.

I want you to notice that this is the same for us.

If I have learned to interpret the world as a victim….I will just about always interpret my experiences from that point of view.

Victim – we will put ourselves in a powerless position in every story we tell.

See the world as a hero – I will work to be that in every story that I write.

And I think our stories can get very complicated based on the experiences that we have had in the past, our interpretation of body language, challenges that we might be facing right now ect.

So I think sometimes it's hard for us to really see that our stories are optional and that there are many different stories that we could tell about any one situation.

Let me share a couple of stories with you so you can see how these play out in my life.

The first one is about a ripped nail and I think the title of this story is simply “sometimes crap happens”

Ok so have you ever caught a finger nail on something and had it rip just a little deeper then desired?

If you haven’t – I hope it never happens to you!

If you have – I heard you cringe when I mentioned it. Ripped nails can be so painful! Kind of like a papercut.

So this happened to me the other day. I was headed over to the barn to feed the cats and caught my nail on my farm jacket and there we were. A ripped nail.

I cringed, pushed the nail back together. Thought oh I hate it when this happens and kept going on my way.

I was super careful doing chores and then came back to the house to glue my nail back together. I don’t know if that is the best solution or if I would even recommend the idea but it worked to bide my time till the nail grew out.

Then a day or two later I was driving some family up to the airport when my second story happened and this one, I would title “If you weren’t such a bad person”

So, I am driving up to the airport – it’s dark, it’s raining, and I am driving in city traffic.

Not my favorite conditions.

And as I take the exit off to the airport, I start to hear an odd sound from my car.

It sounds kind of like a thunk/growling type sound coming from my front tire.

The car seems to be driving fine so I continue to the airport as this sound continues.

Drop my travelers off.

I get out in the parking garage and take a look at my car and can’t see anything wrong. So, I decided to try and make it home.

This hour drive I start to worry.

Am I even going to be able to get home?

Who would I call if I end up stopped in the city or out on the highway before I get home?

If you really had accepted that volunteer position and helped others out around you then this never would have happened to your car.

This is really just you just rewards for not being a very good neighbor or friend for that matter.

If you had been more honest in that situation then this would have never happened.

And this train of thought went on for the whole hour driving home. The sound coming from my car was a result of all of my shortcomings as a person and this was God’s or the Universe's way of letting me know that I was a horrible person.

You know the belief that bad things happen to bad people and if you were a better person then bad things just wouldn’t happen to you.

Now I made it home safe and have got my car fixed since then and it was a slightly loose tire and a wheel bearing but I really want you to look at what my mind did in each of these situations.

With the ripped nail – it was simply ok, we can temporarily fix that until it heals.

With the car – it was “you are a bad person and this is your just reward.”

Seeing how we write these kinds of stories, I literally had turned worn out car parts into an attack on my personal worth and worthiness.

See the contrast.

Now I want you to take a look at your stories.

Which ones do you want to rewrite?

What meaning are you adding to simple circumstances that are making them extremely painful and causing yourself more suffering.

What else could be true about these same circumstances?

What is your most common story to write?

These stories that we write are so important.

I recently saw a quote that said “The most important story is the one you are telling yourself”

They create our experience in life and I hope you can question your stories so that you can find more peace and joy in your experiences. You have the power to change your stories if they are not serving your greatest good.

But the first step is becoming aware of what your stories are!

Happy story writing my friends

It will be fun.

Have an amazing week.