What is your story?

We all have a story, a past story, present story and a future story.

Each part of our story makes up who we are and who we will be. Parts of our story may be terrible, not so great, good and amazing.

If you were to think of your life like a book as you flip through the pages of your life, there are array of emotions, actions and circumstances we have experienced. Laughter, tears, sadness, power, strength, anger, regret, and so much more. Each circumstance provides you with an opportunity to learn and experience something that will support you in your choices and growth.

You get to decide if your experiences with help you grow, love, and succeed OR, hold you back, hate, and regret.

Think about when you are on the last page of your story book, what will it say about you? What impact will you have made?

• What kind of person were you? Did you like who you saw?
• What impression did you leave on the people you met?
• What did you achieve? Where did you work? Where did you live?
• Who are the important people in your life surrounding you?
• What was important in your life, your priorities?
• How did your life unfold with your family, friends, partners, health, career/business…..
• How did you choose to enjoy life? Did you choose to travel? What was fun to you?
• What is your favourite memory going to be?
• Will you have any regrets?

You have the opportunity, to create a life you love with incredible memories.

I have chosen to look at life like a book and each day is a new chapter. Though I may not be able to control what happens in a day, I can choose how I will react to the situations that arise. This is what I can control.

My amazing client Shelly C. has allowed me to share her story. To me her story is incredible. She started out with nothing. Her family was poor, her community was poor, and she was told she would never be able to do better or succeed in life. You might think this was the terrible part, however, for Jane this became her drive.

Jane DECIDED she was going to change her story she had no idea how, but she was going to make it happen. She was going to write her own story and not let the negative experiences in her life dictated how she lived her life. Jane worked hard, learned everything she could became an avid reader of anything she could get her hands on. She started her own business and grew it into a multimillion-dollar business and continued to do so with every business she took on.

She now lives a life she loves, she is a serial entrepreneur, very successful with an amazing family. Things are not always perfect, but Jane has learned that she can decide how the chapters of her book called Life will be written.

We all have different stories. I did not grow up poor or live in a poor community, but I was told I would never succeed in life and I would have to marry someone rich to survive. I am dyslexic and when I was growing up learning challenges were not really understood. I was told at school, that I was dumb, lazy, stupid and was taking up space. I heard these things even from some of my own family members.

The terrible part was for a time I believed what I was being told. It was like walking around under a thick black cloud with no hope.

Lucky for me, I had something driving me, it was like a fire in my belly pushing me so I would not settle. One of the most powerful lessons I learned was that people had opinions about me, but I did not have to believe them or make them my own.

That was also when I decided to write my own story and have a vision for my life. I went from a D student to an A student, I went on to college and university, I worked in corporate and even started my own business. There were many ups and downs and at times my past controlled my present life and jeopardized my future.

I now run one of the most success global coaching businesses, speak on stages all over the world to 1000’s of people, train in corporate companies and am a published author, and in the midst of working on book two.

I never envisioned that any of this was a possibility for me. But I believe one of the key factors to my success is that I took the time to sit down and really look at what kind of life I wanted to live and the impact I wanted to make on the world so I could decide how my story was going to be written.

I highly recommend that you take the time to answer the above questions. Your life is yours, own it and have fun.

Walt Disney had his ideas turned down, could barely feed himself, had a nervous breakdown and was refused by 300 financial institutions to build Disney Land. We all have our challenges.

Walt said, “if you can dream it, you can build it.”

My story is going to end on my terms with my vision.

How does your story end for you?

Carolyn Dickinson
Global Executive Coach, Speaker,
Trainer & Author

Designer by Trade for Business and Life