Which Truth or Narrative Serves You Best?

For any given an external circumstance, there are multiple ways we can view the facts of that circumstance.

And unfortunately, our brain is often choosing a perspective or a view that doesn't really serve us.

I'll give you an example. I was coaching a client the other day, and she was feeling really overwhelmed. Every time she looked at her to-do list, her thought was “There are over 30 things on here. I'm never getting this all done.” And so we wanted to explore it.

We can't change the tasks. We can't change the deadlines. What can we change?

And the thing that we can change is the way she's talking about the to-do list.

So I had a question for her: “If you sat down and you did all of this work, and you didn't do anything else, how long would this take you?”

And her response was: “About a day and a half.”

So my next question is then, “If when you look at this to-do list, what if instead of ‘there's 30 things and I'm never gonna get this all done?’ Your thought is, ‘this is only a day and a half worth of work.’”

And her response was immediate relief.

And nothing changed.

The to-do list was the same. The deadlines were the same. The tasks were the same. But she slightly shifted the way she was interpreting those facts and the story she was telling herself about the to do list.

So next time you're feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious, take a look at the facts. And come up with two or three different ways you can think about them and see if one of them feels better. And if one of them feels better, then you get to intentionally focus more on that thought than whatever the unintentional thought is that your brain is giving you.

Your brain will definitely thank you for giving this a try!