Stories - the way you tell them makes a difference. Do you tell stories of failure? Or success? Of losing? Or winning? In reality our stories contain elements of both; it is our inner beliefs and expectations that shape the way we tell our stories and that determine the way our stories serve us, whether positively or negatively. We can choose to tell the uplifting, fanciful, magical story of the wonder our lives ... or we can choose to tell a tale of woe. Either way, our choices have consequences!
I can tell a story about the failure of my first marriage (which ended in divorce) or a more uplifting story about the success of my second marriage, about how I successfully attracted a great relationship the second time around. In either case, the framing is everything. If I choose the failure narrative, I can go on and on explaining why my first marriage did not work, when in reality it was a beautiful connection that simply did not last (in the form of a marriage) as long as I expected it would. Or I tell a very different story, depicting in great detail the success of my second marriage, when in reality it contains many disappointing aspects.
The narratives of our lives consist of numerous arcs, many unfinished, many whose meanings are not clear. There are elements of success, and of failure, of comedy, but also of tragedy. It's impossible at the end of the day to extricate one from the other. Yet, we reduce our stories to one or the other and accept them at face value! We tell those stories as if they were the whole truth! And then we invite more success or more failure into our lives. Of course we desire to win (nobody wants to fail!), but we will only be truly at peace if we embrace the full truth of our experience and tell our stories in their entirely.