Yesterday in my weekly Integrated Wealth Advisor class one of our facilitators, Emi, dropped a quote that has stayed with me since the moment she said it. Before I share her words, I want to set the stage for the class and why she shared her wisdom.

The focus of yesterday’s class was “Owning Your Story,” and it was led by another one of our facilitators, Michael, who works in film and TV, specializing in storytelling. We worked on breaking down the protagonist of our life’s story—our Self and thinking about our story up to this point in our lives and the story we want to write for our future; this was a fun, yet challenging task and I still have a lot of work to do on it.

Ok, now back to Emi’s quote.

This is not her direct quote, but the wisdom she shared/reminded us of is that our past stories create our present story which impacts our future story. If we can change the story we tell our Selves about our past, we can change our story in the future.

If the story of your past is one full of failure and obstacles, you can rewrite that story to focus on the successes and obstacles that were overcome. The new story, which is not a lie, just a shift in the perspective that the story is told, allows you to achieve more in the future because your protagonist’s story is no longer a failure, but a success.

The truth is, our memories are not true. They are just one perspective from one person (you) of what happened—this is why two people can have completely different stories about the same experience. There are so many people allowing the lies of their memory of the past to keep them from becoming their Authentic Self.

What is the story about your Self directing your present Self and your future Self?

If it is not serving who you want to become, revisit the story of your past and see if you need to rewrite it. Because, as Emi told us, if you rewrite the story of your past, you rewrite the story of your future.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC