Responsible people – independent people – know that there is a story about their life that explains how they came to be who they are. Ask them and they will tell it to you. It typically starts somewhere around adolescence with a child who was extra interested or extra good at certain things. The story will describe particular challenges encountered and triumphs achieved. Sometime in early adulthood, the story takes a turn toward making money. How he first started making money. How he discovered he was really good at something or how he became good at it. The story traces a line of success that seemed like it would end only with a triumphant early retirement. Then the disillusionment part of the story pops up. He did everything right. He found his “thing” and he worked hard at it. Kept his nose “mostly” clean. But the triumphant early retirement seemed less attainable than ever. So a dramatic change. A plot twist. More success. Smash cut to… the Next Big Thing.

Yep. Every independent person has a story they are happy to tell. And we all know that the story is not The Truth. We know it’s not The Truth but we still treat it as though it is. Until one day when we decide to start writing a new story. We know the new story – the one about our future – isn’t The Truth either. But it can seem just as real as the story about our past.So, if this untrue story about our past describes what made us who we are today, then why can’t the untrue story about our future describe what will make us who we want to become? Pro tip: it can. A future tense story, however untrue it may be, can nudge us ever closer to us having our wildest dreams come true.

Write your story. Make it seem real. Just be careful not to start thinking of it as the Truth.