What’s your story?
What I mean is: how do you see yourself? What thoughts (and feelings) do you have about who you are?
What are your “10 minutes”?
Last week, I was at a conference led by a guy called Frank Lopvet who was sharing his thoughts about life. He’s like a one-man show, amusing, touching and hard-hitting all at the same time. He used a metaphor that really struck home with me about how each of us is like a film director, we’re all immersed in making a film of our lives so far. As you can imagine, we have hundreds of hours of film to choose from but, instead of using all this content as a basis for the film, we just choose 10 minutes out of those hundreds of hours and focus on those. These 10 minutes are the “story” we sell to others. And what does this story do? It affects how we see ourselves and how we show up in life.
Whether you’re working towards improving a particular language, your career or an aspect of your personal life, the 10 minutes you have chosen for your film changes everything. For example, if you’re convinced you’ll never be able to learn a language, your 10 minutes are perhaps a compilation of:
- the moment you froze in a French class at school because you couldn’t remember a word, or
- the time your teacher handed back your homework full of alarming red crosses or
- the time you didn’t do well in a test
- …
But do those ten minutes accurately depict who you are and what you can do… for eternity?
You can change what you focus on
Now, what if you focused on a different 10 minutes?
- that trip when you managed to connect with a foreigner really well
- that day when you didn’t worry so much about making any mistakes and time literally flew by
- the part of you who loves sharing information, exchanging with others and discovering new things.
How would this change your approach/mindset?
I think it would be very different.
When I opened my company and officially started my journey as an entrepreneur, I was riddled with doubts. Was I “good enough”? Was it ok to get “out there” and be seen? Did I have what it takes? But I soon realized that, if I wanted to develop my career, I had to change the story I was telling myself. I had to focus on a different film extract.
So, look at your life. The proof is in the pudding as we say! What 10 minutes do you think you’re focusing on? Analyse the situations you’re experiencing. Assess the results you’re getting. They’re based on your story. If you want different results, you need to change your story.
What can you focus on that will switch your attention away from fear and be more coherent with what you want and who you choose to be?
Just think, you’re only 10 minutes away from a whole new perspective…
Photos courtesy of Unsplash: Tobias