Step into Your New Story to Get Out of a Rut
What is your new story? This question always helps people out of a rut. With fall approaching, routines being out of whack due to COVID-19, and kids headed into online learning, it seems appropriate to talk about how this question can help you.
Our brains have a negativity bias--we have a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news. So it is easy to fall into a “woe is me” state and complain when things are not ideal (like now).
When bad news hits, you can view it as contrast--a cue or trigger about what you don’t want so you can re-write your story with the situation. You can do this in a journal, with a loved one or as a brainstorm with a colleague.
Here is how it works…
Start with where you find yourself complaining. This is the contrast--what you don’t want
For example; I don’t want to do at-home workouts, I don’t want to oversee homeschool while also running a business, and I don’t want to be stuck home--unable to travel.
Once you get it all out, you quit complaining and use it as a starting place to build your “new story”
Tell yourself you are done with that “old complaining story”
Then you ask the magic question--if that “old story” is what you DON’T want, then what DO you want?!
This is when your energy starts to shift and you move from negativity and dread into opportunity. So, what do you want? What are the possibilities for your “new story” with this situation? Maybe during your brainstorm, you discover you could:
Find creative ways to workout outside the home
Get a partner to help carry the homeschool load (friend, babysitter, neighbor, spouse)
Go on a road trip to a social-distance friendly locale
You move from a negative narrative, which inevitably happens throughout life, to a place of possibility. When you do this, something extraordinary occurs--you attract new opportunities into your life that either was not present before or that you weren’t noticing until you opened up to all the possibilities.
