How to understand your (money) story through reflection

?In the Arena is LinkedIn News’ weekly human potential podcast hosted by (me)?Leah Smart. You’ll hear from some of the world's brightest minds and bravest hearts about how to show up daily to live a better & more meaningful life. Each week, this newsletter shares learnings and practices connected to the conversations.?Subscribe to the show's newsletter?here. This week we're highlighting a conversation with CPA, Karen Bahn about how to work through and rewrite our money stories.

Many behaviors and decisions we make come from unexplored stories and patterns. And you can use our inquiries to change your narrative.

How often do you think about the stories and patterns that impact your life?

Brené Brown has famously said,

"you either walk inside your story and own it, or stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness."

If you consider how you move through the world, what stories and narrations move with you? Many come from lived experiences, others from absorbed information– television, radio, and influential adults in your childhood. And while some of those stories shape your life in ways that benefit you, others may be holding you back.

In my experience, people who want to improve a part of their life struggle to do so because of limiting beliefs that they won't be able to change. "That's just the way I am," plays on repeat covertly in their minds. And a statement like that can cause us to be inflexible when it comes to change, even if it means improvement. But the decisions and behaviors that originate from our experiences are often not as rigid as we might imagine. In her work and book, Rising Strong, Brené Brown uses qualitative research and her own life to explore the process of stepping into our stories through emotional inquiry, objective storytelling, and new perspectives.

This episode of In the Arena explores the concept of our individual money stories. Alongside CPA, Karen Bahn, I looked at how things have been in the past and we discussed the concept of rewriting our stories. Our conversation is a hopeful one in which both easy and tough stories are malleable. And through curiosity and honesty, we can revamp ourselves.

You can use the below questions to reflect on not just your story when it comes to money, but when directed toward any area you want to improve. Pick a topic that matters to you and try answering the following questions:

Uncovering the Story

• What are my thoughts and feelings about…
• What do I believe today about…
• If (insert topic) were a person, what would it say about our relationship?
• As a kid, what did I notice about how the adults around me related to…

Rewriting the Story

• What do I hope to believe about…
• What would contentment look like when it comes to...
• How can I pay better, optimistic attention to what I have today?
• What do I often think or do that could be working against my desired story?

Uncovering our stories isn’t always easy, but it provides a simple way to objectively look at them. As award-winning and critically acclaimed author, Deb Caletti says, “we are all unreliable narrators, not just in the way we tell our stories to others, but how we tell them to ourselves."

Until next time...what story isn't serving you that you'd benefit from unraveling?