Stories are our way of making sense of things. We understand the world around us — people, things, events, and even ourselves — through stories.

Stories our parents told us, the ones our boss tells us, those that our boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife tell us to convey their love, and the ones God uses to teach us — all impart some sort of practical understanding.

Stories are a communication tool, but are also much, much more. They carry meaning, emotion, faith, facts, impressions, motivation and many other things — depending on the type of story.

But one of the most important stories is the one you tell yourself. It’s the story of who you are, why things are the way they are, where you’ve come from and where you’re going, your secrets, your beliefs, and everything that defines you as a person.

We repeat our story to ourselves almost every day. When you come across an interesting book and hear a voice in your head saying, “You don’t like to read,” you are recounting a piece of your story. “Reading isn’t your thing. You never liked reading books in school. You don’t read well.” This little piece of your story defines who you are and what you will do about that book. In order to go along with your story, you immediately put any thought about that book to the side and don’t consider reading it again. Your story perpetuated.

While reading this, you probably noted that the stories we tell ourselves are extremely powerful. They define our character and behavior, and consequently our lives. Therefore, the secret is to choose our own story. After all, something so powerful cannot be left to chance or to the whims of the fears, neuroses and preconceptions we have about ourselves.

If you want to be successful, you have to start recounting a story of success.
“You don’t accept failure, only success.”
“You were born to win.”
“God wants you to be successful” — and so forth.

The stories you recount about yourself, define your future.
What kind of future do you want?
Start to build it now with stories about yourself that will prepare you to achieve them.

“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great.” — God, changed Abraham’s story long before it became a reality, Genesis 12.2.

Write a new story that you will begin to tell yourself, from this moment on.

Bishop Renato Cardoso