#growth I rewrite the stories I tell myself about myself almost constantly. This is the most powerful thing I do to change and grow, and it's one of the reasons I can change so quickly. I'm used to changing my stories. A few years ago I would put labels on myself. Usually I would use the labels other people gave me, like clumsy or distracted. Some people might even still use those labels for me, but I don't use them for myself. I stopped telling myself those stories long ago, and I changed "clumsy" to "paying attention to the important stuff" and "distracted" to "introspective". I am introspective and it's something I love about myself, and there is a time and a place for it and I can now remind myself of that without feeling like I am not enough because I am "distracted" or some such word. Now I tell myself different stories. Stories about me being and growing into the person I want to be and become. These stories are fun, empowering, and shove me towards my best self even when other factors push back. My stories are powerful. Changing your stories is the secret to changing "who you are". I put "who you are" in quotes because it's [[Alice in Wonderland|a fictitious concept]]. You are not any one thing, and you change with every new experience and thought. When we talk about changing who we are, there's a finality to the idea of who we are that puts up fictitious barriers. We are what we believe in and what we act out; that's it. Changing out stories about what we believe in, and especially our stories about what we believe about ourselves, is a nearly instantaneous way to change the way we act. That changes "who we are" right now, one second from now. Once we believe our own stories, we are magically and instantaneously changed. So keep rewriting your stories, keep changing them as you want to. They are yours to make up and hold dear and live by. <!--The words we use are some of the most powerful tools, positive or negative, that we own.--> <!--TODO: There's an interesting topic about the power of labels here, linking to The Cool Impossible where the author says that the most important thing you can do is think of yourself as an athlete. The take-away is that labels are a powerful thing, both good and bad.--> <!-- Chapter 2 in Atomic Habits is about how to change your behavior. -->