Stories

“How I got here doesn’t tell me who I am” ~ Open Hearted Hand

What do you believe and why do you believe it?

We have been liv­ing out of sto­ries that we’re told. Sto­ries we tell our­selves about our­selves… sto­ries his­tory books tell us… the news­pa­pers tell us…. our par­ents tell us…

We decide whether we believe in these sto­ries or not. And build quite com­plex cases to jus­tify our position.

But where did these sto­ries begin?

If you look deep enough, every story comes from fear or fearlessness.

His­tory books — sto­ries writ­ten by the vic­tors — either by morals or by might. The sto­ries are built around “us vs. them” — and not just con­quest of coun­tries and peo­ple, but nature and spirit as well.

Par­ents — sto­ries told to their chil­dren — lived out as val­ues and influ­ences that are a direct reflec­tion of what they needed — and did or didn’t get — as chil­dren themselves.

Soci­ety — sto­ries told through a myr­iad of laws (spo­ken and unspo­ken), media and modes of behav­ior that define what a com­mu­nity val­ues and aspires to.

We act and react out of the sto­ries we believe in. We are con­stantly mak­ing choices — almost always uncon­sciously — from the basis of what we believe. We live in a con­stant state of react­ing from what we “know” to be true or untrue.

This is our past — col­lec­tively and indi­vid­u­ally — ani­mat­ing us. “Telling” us what to do based on what we “know”.

This is reflected in the frus­tra­tion of the Occupy move­ment. Something’s wrong… and it’s big. But what is it? Some­thing in the story is off track.

Is it really 99% vs. 1%? Or is it 1% in all of us?

What we’re really look­ing for is a new story — a story to live in to. Not old sto­ries to live out of.

This coun­try was “dis­cov­ered” as a com­mer­cial enter­prise. Of course it’s devolved into a finan­cial dis­as­ter! All you have to do is read the first quotes of Colum­bus to see where we were heading:

“They will­ingly traded every­thing they owned.… They were well-built, with good bod­ies and hand­some fea­tures.… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut them­selves out of igno­rance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.… They would make fine ser­vants.… With fifty men we could sub­ju­gate them all and make them do what­ever we want.”

So now I’ll start the piece over with:

What do you know and why do you know it?

We know with our hearts. We know with our gut. Our body tells us what we know.

Our mind processes and decides based on old information.

It’s time to not be afraid. To lis­ten again. And know that any­thing — every­thing — is possible.

It’s time to cre­ate the story we want to live in to. And become that story ourselves.

Peter Buf­fett, son of bil­lion­aire investor War­ren Buf­fett, is an Emmy Award-winning com­poser, NY Times best-selling author and noted phil­an­thropist. Cur­rently, he is releas­ing socially-conscious music and tour­ing his “Con­cert & Con­ver­sa­tion” series in sup­port of his book Life Is What You Make It.    

What do you think? Share your story at changeourstory.com . Visit www.peterbuffett.com to learn more and Change Our Story to join the con­ver­sa­tion on how we all can become active par­tic­i­pants in shap­ing our future.  

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