Choose Your Story, Change Your Life: Silence Your Inner Critic and Rewrite Your Life from the Inside Out
Kindra Hall
HarperCollins Leadership/An imprint of HarperCollins (January 2022)

How and why the stories you tell about yourself can determine who you are and who you can become

Long ago, Henry Ford observed, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.” I was again reminded of that thought as I began to work my way through Kindra Hall’s narrative. Most of us formulate a set of stories that we share whenever we are engaged in conversation with someone who is curious to know where we’ve been, how we got to where we are, and (sometimes) where we expect or at least hope to be in months and years to come. Hall reminds us that we also tell these stories to ourselves and are not always aware of doing that.

“Somewhere along the way, as our brains developed [several thousand years ago], we also developed the ability to tell a different kind of story. We developed the neural wiring for what some scientists call an inner monologue. Somewhere in our brain, a voice of sorts started to make itself known — almost like a narrator in a movie.

“In other words, we weren’t just telling stories to each other; we had started telling stories to ourselves.”

So what?

A lot. “I simply call this voice your inner storyteller because that’s what it is. Just like the fires that your early ancestors huddled around, you have an inner campfire of sorts in your mind.

“And holding court before the flames is the greatest storyteller in history: you.”

Read this book and, if (HUGE “if”) you carefully absorb and digest the valuable information insights, and counsel that Hall provides, you can achieve strategic learning objectives that include these:

o Understanding where your self-stories come from
o How your self-stories create your reality

Note: The self-stories you create for yourself — especially if you are unaware of them — may not be who you are now but they can indicate who you hope to become.

o How rewriting your stories can transform you…and your future
o How to identify your “invisible stories”
o How to put your inner story(ies) under the magnifying glass
o How to re-author a new story that serves you better
o How to put your new self-story to work
o How to choose your own success story adventure
o How to locate your stories of true health
o Understanding why “the best stories don’t grow on trees”
o How to build relationships with the most important characters in life
o How to “tell it forward” with your family and parenting
o Understand and appreciate how and why your “yellow brick road” is composed entirely of [begin italics] the stories you tell yourself

This can be the most valuable you ever read or at least have read thus far. That does not depend on Hall or Yoda or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy…it depends on YOU.

These are among the dozens of passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Hall’s coverage:

o Self-stories (Pages xiv-xvi, 3-13, 37-40, 50-51, 97-113, 170-173, and 214-217)
o Rewriting-self stories (30-51 and 97-113)
o Verbal “iceberg moments” (60-64)
o Analysis of self-stories for truth and impact (71-96, 145-146, 168-170, 186-191, 211-212, and 221-222)
o Six key questions to ask (83-96)

o Installing new and better self-stories (118-133, 170-173, 175-178, 196-198, 217-218, and 224-228)
o Planning for tough moments (126-131)
o Self-stories at work (140-153)
o Choosing self-stories to change your life and serve you better (214-217, 222-224, and 237-238)
o Changing the world through stories (231-234)

Hall identifies all the WHATs but the greatest value of her book is derived — as suggested by my bullet points — from her brilliant explanation of the HOWs.

Two suggestions:  Highlight key passages (my preference is the Sharpie optic yellow with SMEAR GARD) and keep a lined notebook near at hand (my preference is the Mead “Marble”) in which to record comments, questions, page references, and to-dos. These simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.

Thank you. Kindra Hall, for a brilliant achievement. I share your hope that those in greatest need of this book will buy it, read and re-read it, and then “rewrite their life from the inside out.” And keep in mind that some mirrors can also be windows.

If not now, when?