Just one little change. And you’ve known about it all along. But so far, you haven’t made it, have you? And why not? Could it be that you’ve been so busy changing the world that you’ve forgotten the one thing that you have control over? Leo Tolstoy famously said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” So what about you?

Do you want war?

And if your answer is no, then why are you at war today?

And yes —

You might object.

In fact, you might say that you’re not at war.

But really?

Because if you were to take a close look at your life today —

You’d have to admit that you are not fully at peace.

So why not?

Why is peace so elusive?

Well —

Have you made peace your aim?

Or are you just bumping along through your day willy nilly — in the thick of any number of struggles?

And make no mistake about it —

Because you’re not alone.

In fact, way back in 1869 a little book called War and Peace was published.

And its author, Leo Tolstoy, was not at peace.

So he wrote a story.

The resulting novel chronicles the history of the French invasion of Russia.

And it also tells about the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society.

But at it’s heart is a simple question:

Is peace possible?

Because at the heart of this very long book is this very simple story question.

Is peace possible?

So how does Tolstoy tell the story?

He narrows down this global question of peace to tell the story through the lens of five Russian families.

And then he narrows this question down even more through the smaller lenses of individual characters within those families.

Is peace possible?

So that at the center of this very long book is actually one simple story question:

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Which sounds like a statement, but is really a question.

And the question is this:

What change will you make within yourself to make peace possible?

What will you change today?

So —

Is peace possible?

Tolstoy’s answer is:

Yes — peace is possible.

But only if you’re willing to change yourself.

So instead of struggling so hard to change the world —

• Your boss
• Or your partner
• Or even your parents or siblings, if you have some of those —

You must change yourself.

So —

What is the one change you can make today?

The one change you can make today is to tell your own story.

Instead of letting your boss or your partner or your parents or siblings tell your story —

You have to tell your own story.

This is the one and major thing you need to do differently this year.

So —

If you were to do that, how would you start?

One change with three questions.

In order to tell your own story, you need to ask yourself three questions:

1. What is my goal?
2. What’s in the way of me reaching my goal?
3. What must I change about myself in order to overcome what’s in my way?

Those are the three questions that make up any good story.

So get to work writing your answers to those questions.

And if you’d like any help with this, feel free to write to me at mark@marknewtonpdx.com.