Why Your Story Matters
Each and everyone of us has something that makes us tick.
Something that when tapped into, keeps us moving forward against all odds.
Whether fully conscious of it or not, we’re all aiming for a life in congruence to our highest meaning.
A life that we can look back on with a genuine smile and sense of pride in living.
One of the most interesting experiences about the human experience to me is interacting with those who are towards their end of life.
I’ve found the clarity and nuggets of wisdom received during this time period to be golden.
Having lost both of my parents to adverse health issues, but having the opportunity to connect and engage with both towards their end of lives has really played a huge role in my own story and how I choose to navigate the world today.
I clearly remember both coming across more serene, as a certain level of peace permeated throughout their entire beings.
No sense of ego or fear, just presence and true acceptance for the moment.
They completely dropped directly into their hearts, and I could feel the words in which they spoke, deeply to my core.
It came from their truest depth and with a sureness that really illuminated for me, the blueprint that each lived their life according to.
The art of story unites us.
It connects us to others vulnerabilities and levels the playing field.
We all love hearing a motivational Superman story.
One that saw another person stacked against what felt like impenetrable odds, only to willfully weave through the obstacles and end up victorious.
What does all this mean for you?
It means that no matter what you’re currently going through at the time of reading this, you and how you choose to perceive it truly does matter.
Do you find yourself cycling in a loop of “why me’s” or are you smiling in the face of perceived adversities because you deep down know it’s a welcomed part in the journey of growth?
It’s natural to find ourselves in a rut at various times.
However think back to all the times when you’ve overcame different challenges.
Are there any similarities as to what the precursor for reversing the tidal wave was?
You’ll probably notice that when you truly think on it, you discover that either two things happened:
There was so much pressure building up that a breakthrough was inevitably next to happen.
You actively made a choice, from all the given results and insights you gained over time, to go in a different direction.
The beauty is that no matter what the event was, the fact that you’re alive, breathing, and capable of going through even more new experiences, is a testament to your strength and ability to evolve.
We all grow at different levels, as each and every individual has the right of free choice.
However the ones who tend to take more risks outside of their comfort zones, are the ones who reap the highest rewards.
Our biggest growth is just outside of our comfort zone.
Akin to anything we do in unfamiliar terrains, there’s a certain level of vulnerability that has to be overcome to take the next step.
The less risks you take, the fewer opportunities you have for massive change.
The huge positive in this is that anything you see in your life right now at this moment that you deep down know is pulling you away from your greatest version, can be changed by linking the specific thought with a tangible action.
For an example, as of this writing, today is just short of the ninth week in a row where I’ve written for an hour every weekday (Monday-Friday).
I enjoy expressing myself through this medium.
However in the past I found my habits around doing so to be greatly inconsistent.
I would write one day, skip an entire week, then write a couple days in row, followed by multiple months of nothing.
I made a commitment to myself that for the next month I would set a timer for an hour and just write.
The inner judgments of the quality and length of the content didn’t matter.
I committed to not missing a single day during the week and that’s exactly what I’ve done up until this point.
In all honesty, some days I’ve felt completely in flow, where the keystrokes came without any thought.
The hour flew by.
However other days I felt tired or uninspired.
Leading to having a more difficult time with actually getting started.
A major realization I’ve had during this time is that some of the writings I’ve truly enjoyed the most on a second glance, have surprisingly been on days where I just felt completely “off,” as if I was practically wasting my time.
The key is really just showing up to the dance.
Committing to an action for a certain period of time and just continuously showing up for the task at hand.
Tangible actions over a certain period of time inevitably produce a quantifiable result.
The more actions we take in alignment to our hearts desire, the greater depth we have to judge what said actions are truly leading to.
In the past I used to work with clients on a per session or one month basis.
I thought the flexibility it offered was perfect.
Who (if genuinely interested) couldn’t commit to just 1-4 sessions right?
However I noticed that I was attracting more noncommittal type of personalities who without ongoing support, I felt I was actually setting up for failure.
Now the minimum that I’ll see a client is for six months(while I end up working with most for an entire year).
This allows for true habit changes to take full effect and initiates deep physiological changes in the brain and body on a cellular level.
Plus it offers for a unique opportunity to really connect and form a healthy and lasting relationship, which I’ve realized over time is one of the aspects I enjoy the most about my work.
I mention this because our stories and what we’re constantly communicating to ourselves really matters.
And a story isn’t something that changes at the blink of an eye.
We have a thought of a new vision for ourselves in which we’d like to create.
The clarity of the thought, combined with the passionate link of it to our emotions, is what elicits us into taking a new action.
If we don’t allow this simple step to truly manifest first, then we inevitably give ourselves more wiggle room to fall back into our previous default pattern.
The thing is it takes time for our brain to form hard-wired neural connections to the said new behavioral pattern.
We have to repetitively take action in order to continue the rewiring.
There’s no room for the “I don’t feel like it today” train of thoughts.
Yes you may truly feel this way, but take the action anyway(even if it’s just at a fraction of the level it was the day before).
Show up to the dance.
As the more you commit to yourself, the more the world commits back to you.
You are a beautiful, powerful, and a lovingly divine person, just from being alive.
You are enough and deserve all the joys and prosperity that life has to offer.
Always remember to choose compassionate action over analysis paralysis, as when we take one step forward, then the next is truly revealed.
With Love,
Brandon