The Fifth Story: The One We Tell Ourselves Daily
Have you ever had the sense that there is something holding you back? Have you felt as if some hidden figure was stealing your joy, but you just couldn’t put your finger on what it was?
A few years ago, at an event for women entrepreneurs, these feelings washed over me. Despite loving my work, I found myself weighed down by the distance between me and my other love: my family. All day, I mentally replayed stories of my failures as a mother, sliding deeper into joylessness and guilt.
Then, I had an epiphany: there were good stories, too—stories of when I was the absolute best mother to my children. Why wasn’t I telling those?
Suddenly, it became clear to me that the elusive “something” that had been holding me back was a collection of negative self-stories that, until this moment, had been completely invisible to me.
I shared my discovery on stage that day. After seeing its immediate impact on my audience, everything changed for me. The focus of my 25 years of storytelling research was storytelling in business. But after dedicating so much of my life to the four stories that every business person should be able to tell, it occurred to me that there was a fifth story. And this fifth story might be the most important story of all.
Listen in as I share more about the fifth story and its immense power, plus the self-story that helped me flip the script on my negative thoughts. And if you want to go deeper, Choose Your Story, Change Your Life is where I explore the fifth story in full.
