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This is another long post, but it also might be the most important homework assignment you’ll ever get.
Have you ever read something that made you let out an audible “ohhhhhhh.” Last night I found *this* and I can’t stop thinking about it.
How many times do we hang on to things that hurt us? We Facebook stalk someone that wronged us in the past (hey, we all do it. ????????♀️). We keep holding on to that one incident that makes our heart hurt when we think about it. We blame someone else, or our past, for our bad behavior.
We hang on the stories, to our wounds, so tightly. As though we were holding on for life. And why? What purpose do they serve?
That’s the *big* question. So, your homework assignment is to write down three stories that you can’t let go of. Three stories that hurt your heart. Three stories that you hide behind to justify behavior.
And once you have those three stories…answer this. What purpose does this story serve me? See, we don’t do anything without purpose. There’s always a reason behind our behavior. In order to let go of the story you have to understand the why.
I’m willing to bet that one of the reasons we spend all our energy hanging on to the past, resuscitating the story, is because without it, we wouldn’t know who we are.
Think about that for a sec. Not to mix metaphors, but I can’t help but think of the stories we carry and compare it to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. In her book she asks what would you tell Atlas to do, as he was struggling with all his might to hold the world up. And the harder he tried them more he struggled. What would you tell him to do?
You’d tell him to shrug.
What would your world look like if you simply shrugged? If you realized that the one reason you hang on to your stories is because you don’t know what you would be without them? If you simply decided the fear of finding out who you are without the pain was less hurtful than assuming you are only the sum of your injuries?
What if you simply shrugged?