We all have a story.

Doesn’t matter which side of the street we walk, where we came from or where we think we’re going. We carry our story(ies) about ourselves and our view of the world with us everywhere.

Sometimes, our stories lift us up. Sometimes, they drag us down with their limiting beliefs and perspectives of what is possible, or not, of what we can or cannot do.

Always, we are the story-teller, the story-keeper, the story-creator. Always, we have the power to decide when and where and to whom we tell our story. How often. How loudly. How softly. We decide if our telling is a rant or a song. A dirge or a symphony of joy, of hope, of love.

We decide.

Once upon a time, I had a story. It was the story of  my life happening through my role of being a man’s leading character. To make my story come true, I painted inside the lines of what I thought a relationship ‘should be’, not what I wanted it to be — partly because I didn’t look outside the box to see what I truly wanted in a relationship, and partly because the story I told myself about needing a man to make me complete was so strong, I couldn’t imagine not having a man to make me complete!

I became so attached to my story that I couldn’t see it was killing me. Dragging me down into the pits of despair. Pushing me under. Drowning me.

See, I’d always held onto the notion, buried deep within me, that I needed a man to complete my story. I needed someone else to make my dreams come true. Convinced that story where I was completed by another was the only one I could ever write, I became lost in the land of make-believe, living my story again and again hoping for a different ending. No matter how many prince charmings came riding through, or how quickly they swept me away, or I was washed away on the tides of happily-ever-after, the story was always founded on my belief I needed ‘his’ kiss to awaken me to life beyond my wildest imaginings.

We all have a story.

I’ve awoken to a different story than that sad tale of a woman who believed she needed another to make her dreams come true she almost died in its telling. My story today is one of possibility. Of love that doesn’t need another to make it real because Love always is and I always am. In Love. Loving. Loveable. Loved.

In my story today, I live true to my belief in me and Love. I live true to my desire to be, me. Just the way I am. Always who I am. In Love — with me and all the world around me. Today I am not seeking a happily-ever-after fairy-tale come true. Today, I seek living in the here and now, awakened to all that is true and real and possible in the here and now. The Good. The Bad. The Ugly. The Miraculous and Mystical.

We can get trapped in our stories.

The secret is to step out of the characters we’ve created with their limiting beliefs and capabilities and ask ourselves:

1. Is this truth or fiction?
2. Is this story I am telling creating the more of what I want in my life? Is this story I am living a story of possibility, or, is this story bringing me down, further and further, into seeing the future as a repetition of the sadness, worry, unhappiness etc. I am feeling today?
3. Am I the passive voyeur committed to watching the story unfold, letting it happen without my direction, always repeating the same limitations of my story today?
4. Am I the active hero/heroine creating the story of my life as I direct each choice I make towards my goals, creating more and more of what I want in life with every passing day?

The task for today is:

1. Write out three to five things you want more of in your life.
2. List the limiting beliefs that could stop you from having the more of what you want.
3. For each limiting belief, write out what holding onto that belief costs you.
4. List the beliefs about yourself you need to hold onto to have the more you want.

Just for today. Try it. Get excited about you and your life!

Colour outside the lines. Do something you fear. Step outside your comfort zone and leave yourself exposed to creating a new story of your life unfolding where more is possible. The one where the future isn’t a repetition of the past. The one where, the story of your life is a beautiful journey of you being you, experiencing all that is possible when every day you are surprised and enchanted by the wonder and awe you experience by believing in you and living the life of your dreams!

The question is: Are you willing to colour outside the lines? Are you willing to let go of the stories you tell that hold you down and step into the life of possibility that comes with believing in you, yourself and all your dreams?