Change Your Story, Change Your Life

The voice you hear most often is the one inside your head. Psychologists call it "self-talk." It's that internal dialogue that provides a running commentary for our lives. It's the voice that narrates and helps us interpret our experiences. It's a voice that tells a neverending story. What we sometimes forget is that we control this voice and by doing so, control how we engage with the world. By changing what you say when you talk to yourself, you can change your reality.

We are all masters of telling stories that explain the past: "I'm just not getting the right patients." "My practice is in a bad location." "If only I could become insurance-free." "I wish my team would 'get it'." We find all kinds of ways to rationalize behavior and explain away results. It's a defense mechanism, a way of protecting our ego. But these aren't the kind of stories that contribute to success.

If you want to grow and advance, you have to stop being a master of explaining what is, and become a master of explaining what can be. That is really at the heart of what it means to be a visionary, and it is a skill that anyone can develop. After all, you're programming your life with self-talk so it makes sense to tell yourself the things you need to hear.

Let go of what has happened. Don't expend mental energy constructing elaborate explanations or "what-if?" scenarios of what might have been. Ask yourself if the story you're telling yourself right now is creating the right context for what you need to do, and if it isn't, change it.