We live in a world fueled by narrative thatgets reinforced in every moment of every day. As we all know, storytelling isone of the best ways to communicate, learn, lead and inspire but what if I toldyou that your story is holding you back?

As an executive coach and psychologist,I’ve had the honour of working with people from all walks of life, facing allsorts of challenges. The one thing that remains consistent across everyone I’veworked with is that their story, while unique and interesting, holds them backfrom becoming all of who they are.

"As human beings, we are hard-wired to use our intelligence to make meaning of what is happening around us"

At this point, I need to clarify exactly what I mean by story as I’m likely to have lost a few of you on this point. Simply put, your “story” is what you tell yourself in any given moment. It’s that little voice in your head that convinces you to push the snooze button in the morning rather that get up early and go to the gym, or to not ask that question in a meeting as someone might think it’s stupid or that your boss clearly doesn’t think you’re capable of delivering on an important project. As human beings, we are hard-wired to use our intelligence to make meaning of what is happening around us. Ultimately, we love to think that we are totally in control. To reassure ourselves that we are in control, we tell ourselves a very convincing story that always makes us right.

At this point, most people startquestioning their story and what they might be telling themselves, which isonly natural. I will warn you though, once you go down the path of understandingwhat you’ve been telling yourself, you’ve got to be willing to explore a newnarrative for yourself. While confronting, once you recognise your own story,you are well position to be the author of what happens next.

Here are a couple of considerations toleave you with

Getreal with yourself- What do you tell yourself? Isit really true? Is what you tell yourself helpful or is it holding you back?

Checkin with what you want- Rather than live in your oldnarrative, explore something new for yourself. Start by asking yourself  ‘what’s most important to me right now?’

Youdetermine what happens next- Many of us are caughtup in the details of our lives and seek clarity to move forward. The realityis, from moment to moment, we are moving forward and what you tell yourself isthe key to unlocking what happens next.

To sum it all up, a quote from Henry Ford-“Whether you think you can,or you think you can't – you're right”

If you want help to explore how your story might be holding you back, contact me here