We live in story. It’s how we interpret and make sense of the world around us. And this includes how we understand our relationships and our very selves.
When we meet someone new we want to know their story. And even after we’ve known each other for years, we still regularly share memories and tell our stories again. Remember that time when we…
Public figures are also liked or disliked based on the story we tell ourselves about who they are and the work they produce.
And we’re not exempt from the power of stories in our own lives either.
For instance, we tell stories about our childhood, marriage, and the work that we do.
While this is only natural, we must be careful in how we tell our stories. Often our private narratives have played for so long in our minds that we never stop to give them a second thought.
And all to often we miss the nuance and complexity needed to tell our stories well.
It’s easy, for example, to gloss over our childhood as all good or all bad when it was likely a mixture of many positive and negative moments.
Early in dating we might only see and tell the good parts of our story together. But later when we hit difficult seasons we might be tempted to just see the struggle and cast doubt on the entire relationship. Neither extreme tells the full story.
Likewise, it’s easy to assume unfair treatment at work is a personal attack on us when in reality it might have nothing to do with us. While we often have to deal with the consequences of others, they have their own story that’s not about us.
Reviewing our stories often allows us to put them in their best frame – not changing what has happened, but interpreting them with much wisdom and grace.
Take time to review how you’re telling your story. And learn to tell it well – honoring its nuance and complexity.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
