Three steps to rewrite your success story

This was quite a plot twist. No one saw it coming. No one put this in their strategic planning. No one war-gamed, “What if we have to work from home, and it’s unsafe to go to restaurants or take vacations or visit our grandparents?” 

Yet the Coronavirus pandemic arrived in our communities before the end of the first quarter, and it changed every expectation we had for 2020. That’s what a plot twist does.  

There are so many movies, books, plays where the story is going one direction, then suddenly it turns. That’s what this is. When we were recording podcasts at the beginning of the year, none of us could even begin to comprehend what was coming our way. Our plans came to a screeching halt, and we found ourselves taking a massive detour in this unexpected turn of events.  

The plot twist catches you off guard, and it changes everything you were thinking of. That’s what I’ve been experiencing, and many of you as well. Plans have been shattered. Losing income, getting sick, living in fear – that’s the dark side of the plot twist. But here’s the other part: it also gives you the opportunity to change the story. 

You don’t want to be the character out in the field picking corn when the aliens come to take over the world. You want to be the hero who goes from an ordinary person to the one who finds the resilience to save the day.

The plot twist gives you the opportunity to rewrite the ending. So here are three steps you can begin today for a new future born from this pandemic invasion. 

1 – Rewrite Your Life Story. This is the first thing I do for coaching clients when they are facing a transition. I have them write out their 70-Year-Old Life Story. I ask them, “What will your life look like at 70?” 

In those first few days of the quarantine, I experienced some dark moments like many of you. I didn’t feel clarity. I felt lost. Everything seemed muddy. I wear glasses, and it was like I’d taken my glasses off. I could see the overall shapes, but the details were missing. As I felt this deep restlessness, I went back to my coaching roots. 

When you get car sick or experience motion sickness, you need to find a point on the horizon to focus on – something that will level out your body. When we go through these big things like we’re all going through right now, you need something on the horizon you can focus on. For me that is my 70-year-old story. 

I’m 48 now, and the last time I did this exercise was 10 years ago, so I took a couple of hours to write my life story again. A lot has changed. Ten years ago, I was living in a different country. We had just arrived in Denmark. Life was different. My understanding of who I was back then has changed, and rewriting this story was an alignment for the future – the things that I want to accomplish, the things I want to be known for, the things I want to get done. If I’m looking at making any type of transition, if I’m looking at making any kind of change or pivot, I want to make sure that it’s not just a gut reaction, but is something that’s going to take me where I truly want to be.  

I started with that, and that’s when I realized that we’re in a plot twist. No one has immunity to a plot twist. But what we do have control over is that we get to write the story for the next section. 

If you’re saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to do next,” I would encourage you to write your 70-year-old story. It only takes a few hours. 

Before you go out and you start sending out your resume left and right, and your network and do all these things, take a few minutes and write out your story. Write out what you want it to be. Write out what you want to be known for. Write out those things so that no matter what decision you are making – whether it’s a short-term decision or a bigger, long-term decision – that it’s going to take you to the right place. That would be my biggest recommendation to you. 

And here’s the thing to remember about the plot twist. I’ve talked about the hero’s journey before. The hero has an awakening, an awareness, and then they always go through a dark period – always. 

Here’s the thing I’ve learned in life. Heroes don’t become heroes on a stage. They become heroes in the shadows. They become heroes in the place where no one is watching. They become heroes when people have forgotten who they are. 

So in the middle of this plot twist, this is your opportunity to be transformed into the hero of your own story. This is a big, big moment. So take that life story and rewrite it. 

2 – Research Yourself. The second thing, I have not done in a very, very long time. I began to research myself. I don’t mean I was doing a Google search, but I wanted to dive in a little deeper into who I am. The longer I’ve been on this journey, I’ve started to feel a little splintered. At times I feel fragmented and frustrated. So, I wondered, how do I marry all my strengths, interests and abilities together? How do I bring a greater sense of alignment to my life? I focused on the things I already know about myself and just went a little deeper. I took my top five strengths, and I wrote them out: strategic, ideation, futuristic, optimism and activator. 

Then I looked up these strengths, conducting research in what they look like at their height, and I wrote more and more thoughts down about each of them and the insights I’d gleaned. 

When you do this, you can look at how you’re wired, look at the things you’re gifted at, look at your natural strengths, and go deeper into those. Again, if you get a chance at a plot twist, you get a chance to walk through this and come out on the other side different. If you get a chance to rewrite your story, doesn’t it make sense to make sure you’re in full alignment? 

So that was my question. How do I bring my life into a greater sense of unity and alignment? I want to make sure everything I’m doing is completely in my lane. 

When you look at the most successful people on the planet, one of the things they have is complete and absolute clarity. They know exactly who they are, they know exactly what they do, they know exactly what they’re amazing at, and that’s what they really focus in on. They’re specialists. They know their space and they focus in on it. 

For example, my easiest coaching conversations are the ones where we deal with identity and the ones where I ideate with you. I help you see things you never even considered possible. A part of that is recognizing the gaps between where you are and where you want to be, and making a plan with you to get there. 

I help people see connections they’ve never seen before. Whether I’m doing this with a solopreneur or a massive brand, it’s the same skillset. I do it like breathing. 

That type of awareness about who I am and where I excel – that’s what I’ve been looking for. What is it for you? Do you know that sweet spot? Do you know that place where your personality and your top five strengths and your enneagram meld into a perfect mix? Do you know what makes you unique? These are the keys to writing a great story, and when you have that, you know how you want to make a difference in the world. And that’s the other thing I’ve noticed in how the world has changed. It’s the human connection, which takes you to step 3. 

3 – Connect with People in Real and Authentic Ways. In the early days of the quarantine, I was all over social. I did so many live events, virtual cocktail parties, a mastermind, free coaching sessions. It was just clear that we’re all in this together, and the human connections have been amazing. People all over the planet are creating content and sharing. This sense of generosity is humanity at its best. 

Once you turn off the news, hype, politics –  there are an amazing amount of people doing good, and we are all going through something together. There’s something that happens when you have a shared experience (quarantine). There’s something that happens when you have a shared enemy (the Coronavirus pandemic). 

This happened once before in human history, and the result was a thing called the Renaissance. When the plague crossed Europe, 50% of the population was killed. The tragedy was massive, but what happened through it was that humanity came together. The sharing of ideas began to take off. 

That sounds like social media where you can learn how to do yoga from someone in Thailand even though you live in Des Moines, and you can connect through Zoom with people all over the planet who are going through the exact same thing as you. 

In the Renaissance, thought leaders emerged. Today, we’re seeing people become influencers. But there’s a change. Now it’s more about social investing, not just influencing. Influencing is about “hey look at me, buy what I sell.” Those days are numbered, and we’re moving to a new level. I think that level is called social investing. This is where you use social media as a platform to share, invest and give, and through that, we build new ecosystems. 

During the Renaissance, the creators began questioning everything. They began to say “what if?” What if we painted differently than we’ve been doing? What if we tried something different? I think that’s what we’re seeing – people questioning the same things. 

I don’t want to go back to things the way they were. Yes, I want employment returned, and I want a sense of safety for my family, and less fighting over toilet paper. But I also want to see less “hey look at me” and more “how can I help you succeed?” 

Instead of thinking about us and what makes us best, I want us to recognize what we’re insanely good at and ask, “How do I use it to make the world a better place?” 

It doesn’t mean we have to do something extraordinary, such as finding medical cures or providing clean drinking water in Africa. That’s not all of our deals. But it is saying, “I have this gift. How can I help the people around me, the brands around me, the companies around me? This is my skillset, how do I help you succeed?” 

What would happen in business and in our lives if we began to see the things we’ve been wired to do, the things that have been infused deep into our souls and our personalities, what if we began to see those as a way to truly make an impact? 

Serving others at this level begins by digging into self-awareness and building out unity and alignment in your own life. So I hope you’ll join me as I look for ways to foster a business renaissance of some type. Let’s look at ways to connect with people as we face this common enemy together, knowing that a rising tide lifts all ships.