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How to Change Your Future by Writing About the Past
When You Write About Your Past, You Can Change the Stories You Tell Yourself About Who You Are, Where You’ve Been and Where You’re Going
Almost everything you think you know about the past is bullshit.
You have memories. Those aren’t accurate. You weave those together into stories that are even less accurate. Then, you build an identity on top of those stories and you project that person into the future.
Sure, you’ll change a little, maybe you’ll improve yourself slightly, but for the most part, you will be in the future who you were in the past. That’s what we believe, anyway.
But everything you think you know about the past is bullshit. And believing that bullshit is what limits your future potential.
Don’t believe me? Write about your past.
When I write about my past, there’s something interesting that happens around 1,500 words.
I realize that everything I just wrote is bullshit. It’s a lie. Well, not a lie exactly but it’s a version of the story that I made up to serve some broader narrative, something I want to believe about myself or to show people a side of me that I want them to see.
