New Stories

Telling ourselves stories helps us navigate our way through life because they provide structure and direction.  Your life is your story.  Your story is your life.  The Power of Story by Jim Loehr

Since deciding to step out of active ministry, I realized that I needed something else to define who and what I was.  I needed to be able to "tell a new story about my life" and what it was that made it satisfying and fulfilling.  With all of my training, I am struggling to figure out what is next on my life agenda.  In other words, coming up with a new story at will make life exciting and compelling.

Jim Loehr makes some interesting points in deciding what it is that is makes for a good story.  1.  Will this story take me where I want to go in life (while at the same time remaining true to my deepest values and beliefs)?  2.  Does the story reflect the truth as much as possible?  3.  Does this story stimulate me to take action?

Then, once the new direction is decided upon (this is like figuring out how to incorporate a new habit into your life), how to internalize the new story into your life.  We need to get the new story into our subconscious in order for it to serve us well.

He says that the most effective way to embed the new story is to:  1.  write about it and rewrite about it - using a journal to remind yourself what it is that you like about your new story.  We tend to think that an idea is so good that we will remember it for all time.  Not true.  Allow a week to go by and you will have difficulty remembering what was so wonderful about the idea you had.  This is why when writing it down, you don't have to remember it - just look it up.  2.  keep rereading it and revising it until it is what you want and something that truly reflects the above rules for a good story.  3.  thinking about it.  4.  visualizing it.  5.  talking about it privately to yourself to make sure this is something you really want to internalize into your life.  6.  deliberately acting it out and see if it fits into your life and your behavior.  

Changing your habits and changing your life is equally as difficult - you really want to want to do it.  Talk is easy.  Walking your talk is something else.  

If you have been keeping up with this series of blogs, you know how long I have grappled with this process.  I have gotten close several times and I thought I had it locked into my system of thinking only to find out, this is not fitting the way I meant it to be.  More work.  More processing.  Having to dig deeper into what it is that I truly want to experience for the rest of my life.  

Time to make and set new goals.  Time to think about how to make this period of my life truly different and exciting.  I have also been thinking about how to take full advantage of my affluence so that working all the years I did pays off.  

Much to think about.  I invite you into the process with me so that when you get to this point in your life, you will have most of it mapped out and ready to take the journey of a lifetime.  Make it an adventure.