For best results, start with the freshest ingredients

Still telling the same old boring story? Knock it off. Start a better one today, with fresh ingredients. Here’s how.

Are you eating a stale story?

Let’s say you’re just waking up. And feeling like, “Oh, crap. Here we go again.” And by the way, most men in America are waking up with those same thoughts. But you could also be at the end of your day, or in the middle. Because in any case, what you see is this: Same old job. Same old troubles. Yada yada yada. So yeah: I get it. But you don’t have to live this way. You could be telling a different story. A better story. In fact, you could be telling a story that you actually like — a story that makes you feel more like, “Wow, that’s a cool story,” with a different beginning, middle and end. And you can start today.

But isn’t that unrealistic?

Sounds pretty pie in the sky, right? Because the fact is, you still need to earn the dough-ray-me to pay your bills. And chances are that even when your life sucks, it’s the life you know. It’s comfortable in its own terrible way. But — please pause for just a moment here, and let it dawn on you: the life you are living is the story you are telling. For example: “Oh, shit. Here we go again.” That’s one version of a story. But you could just as easily say, “Holy shit! I get to do this again?” And that would be a significantly different story. In other words, it all depends on how you tell the story — and what perspective you take; you get to choose.

You choose.

Of all the advice I received from my father, perhaps the best advice was this: “Choose your life.” Which, for a long time, hurt me — because my father chose to live most of his life far away from me. He was never around, and even when he said he would be around, he often changed his mind at the last minute, after I had built up an expectation that I would get to see him. Do you see what I was doing? I was telling the story of a boy waiting for his father to return and care about him. But then, one day, I grew up. And I realized that the story that I was telling myself wasn’t helping me. In fact, it was hurting me, and making me feel bad. So what did I do?

What will you choose?

I chose to take his advice. Because the advice was good — choose your life. Which is another way of saying, “Tell your own story.” So now, instead of the boy waiting for something to happen that is not going to happen, I get up every day and make things happen — without unrealistic expectations, and without relying on others to make me happy. 

What ingredients are missing?

If your story is boring you or making you feel bad, chances are it’s missing a few key ingredients. Does your story have enough of these?

• adventure?
• courage?
• risk?

There may be other ingredients that are missing from your current story. So ask yourself: what key ingredients are missing from the story I’m telling myself today?

Will you do it?

Remember — change begins with action.

Take a small step today.

Starting today, tell a better story, with fresh ingredients, instead of that same old stale story you’ve been telling yourself for far too long. And if you missed the talk in the post before this one, you might want to jump over there and watch that brief talk on how to tell a great story. Here are the three main takeaways:

1. Know your ending. Where do you want this story to take you? What is your goal?

2. Be honest about who you are. Quit hiding your greatness and start showing up.

3. Care. Find something you care about. If your story is going to be compelling, you gotta care. So — do you care? And how would I know you care, if I were listening to your story?

Read more.

I can help you tell a better story. And you have a couple of options for your next step. You could contact me and describe what you’re going through. And I’ll be in touch with suggestions. Or you can book a free session to make a time to get together and talk it over in person. Either way, I’m here to help you focus, overcome resistance, and get moving again.