Change Your Story
October 27th, 2008 Posted in GeneralIn The No Complaining Rule book we offer an assessment and one of the questions is “If my life was made into a movie I would characterize it as a: A) Drama B) Love Story C) Comedy D) Inspirational Tale.”
I thought it was an important question because we don’t live our lives based on reality but rather by our perception of reality. And this perception is influenced by the story we tell ourselves and the story that defines our life.
Every one of us is playing a part in a story. What role are you playing? Victim? Hero? Fighter? Lover? Soap Opera Star? Underdog? Overcomer?
Do you want to change your life? Change your story. Just as a director of a movie utilizes different perspectives and camera angles and colors to create a look and feel of a movie, you can redefine your life with a new perspective, new thoughts, new beliefs, and new actions that will change everything.
Right now there are a lot of people believing in a story of fear and destruction. They are broadcasting a horror story over the airwaves directly to you in the comfort of your own home. Others are sharing the horror story at work, at conferences, meetings, in the grocery story, at school and at community events. Believe this story and soon enough you will be playing the lead role in the horror film.
I want to encourage you make a different choice. Don’t believe this story. Stop tuning in. Change the dial. Hit the pause button. Then tune into a different story. Tune into a story of hope, faith, optimism, and trust. The world is filled with books (including the best selling book of all time) and stories of people that have overcome hardships, adversity negativity, and challenging times. Choose to believe in these positive stories. Choose to see yourself as a modern day “Lion Chaser” as my friend Mark Batterson writes in In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. Mark says that Lion Chasers don’t run from fear. They face it. They don’t hide from their challenges. Rather they realize that within these challenges are some of life’s greatest opportunities.
Every great story, whether fiction or non-fiction, is filled with conflict and adversity. And every hero must overcome this conflict and adversity to define themselves and their success. Heroes can’t control what the bad guys do or the bad events that they create but they can control how they respond to these events. Sure heroes get down. They get beat up. They lose hope at times. But ultimately heroes believe that good news is coming. From the jaws of defeat and despair they come back stronger and more positive than ever. They believe in themselves and in something bigger than themselves. And most of all they inspire others to believe in themselves and a positive outcome. This doesn’t just happen in the movies. It happens in the real world every day - in businesses, in schools, in hospitals, in churches, in homes, and in our communities.
Life is a story. What role will you play?
Stay Positive!
-Jon | www.JonGordon.com
Positive Strategies = Positive Results
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10 Responses to “Change Your Story”
By daniel on Oct 27, 2008
Great message Jon. I’m playing the role of the difference maker.
By Sandi on Oct 27, 2008
Good message Jon… I’m a Real Estate Broker and with all the adversity around us my motto for today… I’m still standing !
By Kate on Oct 27, 2008
Thank you Jon, I enjoyed the question ‘what kind of movie’ In my mind I think I am being upbeat and positive, but the reality is the opposite, so while I think my life is the inspirational tale I want it to be, it is in fact a drama and now, with that BFO (blinding flash of the obvious) I can move right along and make the changes required to turn it around.
By June Roberta on Oct 27, 2008
For most of my life I was a victim. After I hit bottom, I gradually changed. Now my life is an inspirational tale. All it took was guts and time.
By June Roberta on Oct 27, 2008
For much of my life, I was a victim. When I hit bottom, I decided to change. It took many years of work, guts, and time. Now my life is an inspirational tale.
By Laura on Oct 27, 2008
Thanks for this message. I’ve been increasingly frustrated with the media for pumping out endless negative stories. I’ve started to turn off the news, but then I feel guilty because that news is so important. Or is it?
I don’t want to be caught with my head in the sand, but the doom and gloom is constricting.
Role today? Conduit. I will share this blog post with my community of readers and hope they get the same uplift that I now feel. Thanks Jon!
By June A. on Oct 27, 2008
Does anyone remember the early 70’s? I lived in Germany for a while and people could only drive their car every other day and in the US there was gas rationaing and long lines at the pump. And do we remember the time when President Jimy Carter asked everyone to turn their thermostats down to a chily 75 deg (or close to that.) There was a recesion on then. And what about history when we didn’t have Wall St. My point? People always prospered in those times, we always had the poor too; and does anyone remember ever reading a few stories in the Bible when Jesus fed a few thousand people with 5 loaves and 2 fish and sent his friend fishing to get the money (in a fish’s mouth)to pay the IRS of their time.
“His”story is the history we need to remember, and believing that can change our own history, personal and national.
By Justin on Oct 27, 2008
Read the Energy Bus and loved it. Great point about the story. I listened to a sermon the other day and he stated we all want to be the hero in the story. He asked to list the characteristics of a hero and most hero’s were not proud, flew under the radar, and did not think they were great. He then offered the challenge of how do you think of yourself. Do you think you are great? Do you think you are better than those around you? Like you said we can change our story and it starts with putting others before ourselves. What you fill your minds with and who you are around is what you will be in 10 years. I know in my life I have sincerely looked at this and made changes. One of them is not watching the depressingly negative news.