Consider how you use your time and the narrative you tell about your life. Yes, the narrative – the stories we tell ourselves. We tell them as if they are true. We believe them as if that is the only way to think about a situation, the only truth. Then we feel stuck. All because of the narrative. Some examples:
- We focus on our days or weeks, making decisions that bring short-term pleasure or relief. Instead we can focus on the years and thinking big picture. By focusing on the long-term, we become willing to embrace short-term discomfort for the benefits that bring about long-term satisfaction. When we focus on the days, we often choose the short-term pleasure; thinking this perceived shortcut is inconsequential.
- We rehearse our past thoughts and circumstances, beating ourselves up for what didn’t go our way, instead of choosing to make a new decision based on new thoughts and our current reality. We think if our circumstances were different, then we would choose differently. We fail to see we can choose differently now. We choose to stay in the pain of our story rather than choose the pain of changing it.
Be mindful of your narrative.
If our narrative about cutting back on drinking is that “it will be hard”, then it will be. That narrative becomes the reason we don’t do the “hard” work. The only way to get to your long-term goal is to simply embrace the fear and the perceived discomfort. That’s how we become unstuck. Be mindful of your narrative. Are you embracing a perceived short cut only to keep you from not reaching your long-term goal?
You have the power to choose differently.
Starting today.
