Love Your Story: Stories and discussions about personal growth, mindset and living with intention

Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. A few years ago I was volunteering at the Parliament of Religions – a space where every religious affiliation you can think of, from across the world-monks, Wickens, Christians, tribal leaders, etc. came together for a conference of understanding one another better and working together.

So… I’m walking through the meditation labyrinths, the info. tables, and the food booths and I find this unmanned table with a stack of books and the word MUSE on it. I stop. I’m always looking for my muse. On the table sat a sign that read “$20” and a stack of books sat next to it. I picked up the book and flipped through it. It was well illustrated – gotta love an easy read– and the concepts were exactly what I wanted to know more about as I personally studied story and worked with my clients on finding and crafting their stories. So I dropped $20 bucks, took a book and tucked it in my bag. I used the Circle of the 9 Muses for the development of my Story Launchpad workshop and got a much broader view of helping organizations extract their stories. So, I knew David and worked with his stuff way before I made contact with him as a person. Needless to say, I’m super stoked to hop on this conversation with him because business leaders out there – this is the real stuff.

David is the author of Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators and Meaning Makers,  and is creator of the Learning Fables — a book series that uses narrative and metaphor to illustrate principles of organizational learning.

With titles that include “Outlearning the Wolves” and “Shadows of the Neanderthal,” the popular business fables have sold more than a quarter-million copies in over a dozen languages.section of narrative, leadership, and complex systems change for more than 20 years.

Besides being a bestselling author, business writer and learning designer, he created solutions for The Coca-Cola Company, PayPal, Wal-Mart, Accenture, IBM, L’Oreal, The US Olympic Committee, and others. He travels the world and shares his knowledge of story and how to use it with big business. So stay tuned for the good stuff!

To hear our conversation on using story to create connection in all parts of life – business, personal, and even in a college entrance interview, tune into the audio program.

To follow or get in touch with David:

Desmond Tutu said, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

You don’t get out of bed in the morning without hope. We have hope in many things. Hope in God, hope in family, hope our efforts will bear fruit, hope we’ll find that perfect someone, hope we’ll overcome a sickness, hope that life holds beauty, hope the toilet won’t back up, hope our kids will live well, hope we get the job, hope we get pregnant, hope we don’t get pregnant, hope we’ll lose 10 lbs.…hope is the reason we keep on keepin on. But what happens when you hit those patches, the dissolving of a relationship, the terminal diagnosis, the loss of a job, severe bullying, despair and overwhelming self-criticism for another failure, and hope gets up and walks out of the room?

A few years ago a friend separated from her husband. She moved to a new town, she started doing emotional work and building a new community around her, but her hope ebbed and flowed. “What can I do for you?” I asked. “I just need hope” she said, “and sometimes that’s hard to come by.” So this episode is for her, and for all the people who have moments where that light of hope isn’t visible in the storm you are currently in – that would be all of us.

One of the spaces and stories that creates hopelessness is that space of feeling as if we have failed, are failing, or are destined to keep screwing things up. This heavy space is like a drain that sucks the light right out of our souls. So let me share an idea that I heard in church the other day:

When a parent pays for a child to take piano lessons so that they can learn a new skill, develop a talent, understand music, they do not expect the child will sit down and instantly be a concert pianist. They hope the child will sit and practice day after day before even a beginner song can be played. They don’t want the child to pay them back for the lessons, they want the child to take the opportunity given to them to learn something new. They hope the child will respond to the gift and keep practicing year after year until the skill is acquired.

So it is with our Heavenly Father/Mother, with God. We have been given opportunities in our lives to learn many, many things. We often learn these things through trial and error. God doesn’t expect us to be an expert at them out of the gate. We will practice love. We will practice disciplining our minds and bodies, we will practice patience. We will practice overcoming judgment. We will practice sharing and playing nice. We will practice loving ourselves. We will practice healthy boundaries. We will practice living big. We will practice communicating well. Every day we will have opportunities to practice, with every interaction and experience before us. We always get to keep trying. And, we are all practicing different songs.

It’s important to remember that there is never a fall or a fail, a wrong note, where we should stay down. It’s common that when we feel we have failed at something – a marriage, self-control, an expectation, something new we tried, that dark mists of shame and hopelessness, discouragement and futility can easily start to build and swirl at our feet  – this is the common human experience. My belief is that it is the adversary looking for every crack in our armor, in an attempt to drain us of hope and increase the darkness we live in. Whether or not you believe in an adversary – a force of darkness that competes with the light, it is the human experience to feel both darkness and light and to choose which they will gravitate toward.  For me the hope comes from not staying in a place of self beat-up, but instead asking myself what I learned from the situation and then being kind to myself and moving forward with the new knowledge I gained to try again – to keep moving toward light.  We are never unworthy or unwanted.  We are simply practicing. Hopelessness would have you throw the music down and stomp off when you hit the wrong notes. Hope comes from the understanding that we are definitely going to hit wrong notes – a lot of them. And, that’s okay, expected, but we are blessed to try again.

If you have children, you will remember when they were learning to walk or to ride a bike. When they fell you never once thought, “Oh, well that child has fallen, he/she is now unworthy to continue to try.” We must be as loving and supportive to ourselves. We are learning every day, and every day we get to keep trying. Maybe that trying involves creating boundaries that support you – moving away from social media or peers who bring you down. Maybe trying is seeking therapy or outside help. Maybe trying is just changing stories that are holding you back. Maybe trying is new affirmations. Maybe trying in just practicing loving that person you really don’t love right now. Maybe trying is getting out of bed and looking beyond yourself.

Each one of us is a sacred being. We are beautiful and beloved and full of potential and talent. Even if we aren’t fully aware of all the power and beauty we hold, we most certainly are vibrant and sacred. Every one of us.

In her book, You are Magnificent, Ganel-Lynne Condi said, “Do the best you can with the information and factors you have at the time; that really is the best you can do.”

She goes on to share that a therapist once told her that hope is not a feeling, it is a choice. A choice to keep choosing a plan B when plan A doesn’t work out. “So,” she says, “if plan A hasn’t worked like you hoped, keep choosing another plan B. Maintain and protect the hope and love you still have, and seek out sources that will expand that light…this is how we can keep acting instead of being acted upon.”

Three final ideas I want to share with you that give me hope:

I have a saying on my wall to remind me that God has my back – that his love is distilled upon me every day no matter the circumstance. It says, “The Lord’s love distills upon us as manna. Manna comes daily.”

Every day that I wake up and stare out the window into the world and face whatever I’m facing, hope tells me that there will be manna out there. I will find what I need to do what I have to do and learn what I need to learn and I am exactly where I’m supposed to be right now –even if it’s in the middle of a storm.  The fact that God will distill upon me daily little pieces of his love his huge, but at the foundation of this is the healing power of the atonement of Christ. He forgives us over and over and over – not as a burden, but as a joyful grace. He forgives us frequently and freely. He never tires of our efforts to learn and grow. Knowing this, even when I don’t completely understand how the process of cleansing works, simply that I can keep trying and he’ll keep doing his part. This creates hope. I don’t overcomplicate it – I just keep trying.

Faith, trust and hope are certainly very tight bedfellows.

First project. First Client. First date.

Experience tells you if you want to do it again, how to do it better the next time, each step is a new experiment, a new experience, a new chance to get it right. Even if it goes wrong, it was just an experiment.

John Lee Dumas, successful  podcaster, business man and entrepreneur said, “I make mistakes daily. Some big, some small. I make mistakes because I’m a doer. I’ve become a recognized authority because I’m a doer, not because I don’t make mistakes.”

And the third one is people…

Let me share a story from Oprah, in her book,  What I know for Sure, she shares:

“In times of crisis, I’ve always marveled at the way people reach out with words of encouragement. I’ve had moments of real devastation in my life –we all have—but I’ve been sustained by the grace and love of friends who have asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” not knowing that they already have, just by asking. People I’ve known well and others I’ve never met have, in touch moments built me a bridge of support. I’ll never forget when, after a particularly difficult setback a few years ago, my friend BeBe Winans stopped by unexpectedly. “There’s something I came to tell you,” he said. And started singing what he knows is my favorite spiritual: “I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.” I sat silently, closed my eyes, and opened myself to his gift of love and song. When he finished, I felt a release of pressure. I was content to just be. And for the first time in weeks, I experienced pure peace. When I opened my eyes and wiped away the tears, BeBe was beaming. He started laughing and gave me a big hug. “Girls,” he said, “I just came ot remind you, you don’t have to carry this load all by yourself.” To know that people care about how you’re doing when the doing isn’t so good – that’s what love is. I feel blessed to know this for sure.”

Hopelessness is the plague of our day. As suicide rates soar, depression and anxiety become the norm, and drug addiction increases, we see manifest amongst us all the results of hopelessness in the most severe ways. It becomes a space of darkness that takes over the minds and hearts of our societies. It might ebb and flow, but when it’s in the flow we desperately need a light – something, a candle, a flickering flame before us that we can see far enough ahead to keep moving forward instead of giving up.

Can I encourage you, if you are NOT in that dark space, to be the light for someone else. And if you are, to remember that life is an experiment, a time to practice our songs, and wrong notes are just part of learning. Reach out if you need help, because often the disconnectedness of our digital age is part of the problem.

Keep trying because you are sacred, you are needed, and everything you’re going through is preparing you to be who you need to be and to do what you need to do. You are the hero of your story, fighting the dragon for the pot of gold you cannot see on the other side of the fight.

Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast where I get to interview people with STORIES! Getting down to the nitty-gritty of real life. What we really experience, what we struggle with, how we overcome, and the journey of the hero along that path – falling down and getting up.

Today I bring Jeff Soelberg to the table.  He’s just your average middle age guy whose life changed for the better on July 6, 2016, when he lost 3 of his fingers in a work accident and severely damaged his wrist. Over 8 months and 6 surgeries, hundreds of stitches and 1000s of hours of PT, he returned to work a different man. Jeff, instead of staying in the dark space created by the loss of the use of his hand decided to look for the news doors this could open for him. He now has a mechanical addition to his hand and he’s embraced the CrossFit competitions where he’s excelled and met inspiring individuals.  Stay tuned to hear about his story.

The night of Jeff’s accident his surgeon told him that he wouldn’t be able to lift weights again. He didn’t accept that and today he takes pride in proving his surgeon wrong.  He’s a 55 year old who is competing against 20 and 30-year-olds in adaptive CrossFit competitions. He’s a big proponent of sharing the idea that we can overcome any challenge, climb any mountain we set our minds to and that we can do it no matter our age or ability.

Tune into the audio program for my interview with Jeff. Since the interview Jeff has continued to create new and exciting things:

Michelle Obama said, “You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.”

I believe Jeff exemplifies this. He’s a great example of taking a challenging situation and finding the silver-lining; making the best of it; taking it a step further to try and encourage others.

Your challenge for this week is to think about what your largest challenge is right now at this moment in time. Can you find 5 things to be grateful for regarding this challenge? What are you learning from it? What people has it brought into your life? What opportunities has it created? Give it a little thought and you’ll find that there is always a silver lining and finding it not only broadens your perspective, it’s also the key that starts to change the energy and anxiety that surrounds the challenge.

Have a great week out there creating your best life stories. Share this episode with someone you feel it might inspire and we’ll see you next week on the Love Your Story podcast.

Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. On the podcast I have shared stories of everything from eating disorders, infertility, losing a child, suicide, death of a spouse….lots of hard things that people have experienced, overcome and learned and grown from. Today’s story is dark. This is the first story shared on the podcast about rape.  Violently gang-raped when she was thirteen years old, and raped three more times before the age of eighteen, Madeleine has experienced more trauma in her life than most ever will. Living in a state of shock and self-loathing, it took her years of struggle to confront the buried memories of that first attack and begin to undo the damage it wrought, as men continued to take advantage of her fragility in the worst possible way.

Yet, after growing up with a burden no teenager should ever have to shoulder, she found the heart to carry out the best revenge plan of all; leading a fulfilling and happy life.  For Madeleine, forgiveness was the key.  True forgiveness takes genuine effort.  It takes a real desire to understand those who have done us so much harm.  It is the ultimate act of courage.

Today she tells the story of finding her voice and her heart and an acceptance of herself. Stay tuned for her story, and know that we tell these stories on the podcast,  not to focus on the hard spaces, but to celebrate the people who learn, grow and thrive despite the dark and terrible roads we walk.

Madeline Black wrote a book called Unbroken.

In Unbroken, Madeleine tells her deeply moving and empowering story, as she discovers that life is about how a person chooses to recover from adversity.  We are not defined by what knocks us down – we are defined by how we get back up.

She says,

‘If anyone had told me a few years ago that one day I would be giving radio and TV interviews, speaking publicly or writing a book; I would never have believed them.  But after sharing my story publicly for the first time in September 2014 I realized that my voice and words are now my strength and I will continue to speak out against sexual violence for all those who can’t find their voice yet…’

Tune in for the audio program and her Madeleine tell her own story.

For more information on Madeleine:

The things that happen to us do not define who we are. It is what we do with the things that happen to us that creates our strength and learning. Madeliene’s shared ideas of love winning over hate, and sharing her authentic path of events that happened, but also her natural response to those events, and then her learning to overcome those horrible spaces through accepting love. Love – the key to opening many doors, is a powerful story. So many of us have our own hard stories. We all look for others who have had similar experiences so that we can find our way to navigate the hard places. That’s why we share stories.

Your challenge this week is to share the love – share this episode or one of the other inspiring Love Your Story podcast episodes with someone in your life who could stand to use a story that show the human spirit in overcoming and leaning into love.

www.loveyourstorypodcast.com

Welcome back to the Love Your Story podcast. I have a question for you. What is YOUR impossible? What boundaries have you set on yourself for how far you can go? It’s commonly acknowledged that we set our own limits on ourselves, and this idea of redefining impossible got really serious with today’s guest James Lawrence, aka the Iron Cowboy.

James got the nickname after he started wearing a cowboy hat during the marathon portion of his Ironman races so he could easily be identified by his five children.  Originally from Calgary Canada, he now lives in Utah with his wife Sunny their kids.  With two Guinness world records under his belt, James and his family attempted to take his endurance even further and do something every person deemed impossible. Complete 50 Ironmans in 50 consecutive days in all 50 states. Did he do it? Stay tuned to find out. And, let’s talk about redefining impossible.

When James announced his plan to complete 50 Ironmans in 50 consecutive days in all 50 states everyone thought he was crazy.  An Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run – a marathon. In Lawrence’s case, he would have to complete those distances and then make it to the next state in time to do it all over again the next day. Even Lawrence’s coach didn’t think he could do it.

When I met James Lawrence he was standing in a REAL soccer box raising funds and selling his book: Iron Cowboy. I got a copy that night and started reading it the following week. All I can say is holy shit. That was one painful, crazy-ass, unbelievable journey. His book is the story of his herculean 50-day journey and all the wonderful, miserable, and life-threatening events that happened along the way, as well as a glance at his life leading up to the mission, and winning two prior world records. Lawrence holds two world records in the Guinness Book of World Records: one for completing 22 half-Ironmans in one year (2010) and one for completing 30 full Ironmans in one year (2012). In 2015, he started out on this crazy quest to set a record for completing 50 Ironman distances in 50 states in 50 days.

Along the way, Lawrence survived tropical storms, internal bleeding, hypothermia, hyperthermia, dehydration, nerve damage, infected foot blisters, a blood-clot scare, extreme sleep deprivation (he only got four to five hours of sleep each night), and a bike crash!

Tune into the audio program for my interview with the Iron Cowboy and hear his stories and thoughts, including:

“No matter how extreme my suffering became, it was only suffering.”

“We’re not entirely on our own, because we can draw inspiration to achieve our own impossible, by seeing others conquer theirs.”

“The good you do is not always the good you expected to do.”

“The one thing I could control was my attitude, so I decided the predicament was a test rather than a setback. Unable to change my situation, I changed its meaning instead.” Can you tell us about this particular situation and your thoughts on it?

After this feat, Sports Illustrated ranked James in the top 50 fittest freaks with the likes of Lebron James and Connor McGregor, 2 of James favorite athletes.  RedBull declares that ‘when it comes to endurance, he is unstoppable’ and Success magazine named him ‘The Most Enduring Man In The World’.  He has literally Redefine the definition of impossible.

To learn more about James, buy his book, or follow him:

Your challenge this week is to start to look at the boundaries you have placed on yourself? How can you blow past those? How can you fight the pain, or fear or stories that sit between you and what you’ve thought was possible for you? If James Lawrence can push through the unimaginable mental and physical pain and discipline required to do 50 Ironman races in 50 days, we are certainly capable looking at this example and digging deep into our own wells of endurance. Look at your self created boundaries and choose one this week to show it who’s boss.

Thanks for tuning in for his fantastic story. If you like the show, please take a minute and leave a review on iTunes. It makes a big difference for us podcast folks, because it helps rank our shows. Share the love people and go out and create your best life story on purpose.

Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. Today’s episode is about JOY! Men and women are that they might have joy and there is a simple way to find it. It’s all about paying attention to the in-between moments in our stories because that’s where the magic happens. Stay tuned for this quick reminder about being present to the moments that bring you joy and let’s get 2019 started off on the best possible foot – not so much about change, instead let’s just talk about finding the joy in our lives and living into it with gusto and new eyes.

A life story holds those big moments. The ah-ha moments. The defining moments – the child is born, the lesson is learned, the new job is landed, the trip that started the domino effect is embarked upon.

These are beautiful moments caught in the nets of memory, but the real magic isn’t there. The real magic is so much quieter. So quiet in fact, if you don’t open your eyes and heart you miss the magic all together – and that would be a shame, because this is the magic that makes joy the landscape.

Let me explain.

My favorite morning moment is sitting with a war mug of vanilla chai tea. Delicious, comforting and slow. It’s magic every morning.

I love blue sky days with trees full of green leaves. As I walk my dog Rocky, around the block I revel in the color; joy and gratitude are like a deep sigh because instead of being caught up in what I have to do, or the latest stress, I stop and look and listen and say prayers of gratitude. I notice the sparkle of the sun off a puddle or the sound of kids playing and laughing, or the fresh air in my lungs. The little things we miss a million times a day because we don’t tune in.

Laughing with my friends – really laughing, that’s a 5-star moment. Skiing a great line, a really good kiss, a freshly mowed lawn or vacuumed floor, real smiles on my son’s faces, quick and witty banter with my siblings.

Life’s defining moments, the joyful spaces, require a simple awareness, or they pass in the fog of the day and your real spaces of joy with it, while we wait for that something big, that huge accomplishment, that next big win, that unforgettable event.

My friend Tonya says her list of small magic includes hugs from her nephew Henry, kisses from her nieces, being photo bombed by her sister, smiling at strangers, making someone laugh, really good friends, reading and having a revelation.

What are your 5-Star moments? And when they happen I want you to stop and take a breath, and just sit in the joy while you whisper out a gratitude.

My life blooms in richness when I am aware of these moments. Every normal day feels rich and magic, supported and blessed. Yours can too. Right now.

One of the reasons we get away from these details is that our 21st Century minds have learned to skim everything. We live in information overload, so instead of soaking in the rich details of our lives, we skim the massive amounts of information and happenings around us to sort where we will put our focus. The down side of this type of management is that the details, the magic spaces, the little things become invisible.

Research from Ohio State University points out that Although adults can beat children at most cognitive tasks, new research shows that children’s limitations can sometimes be their strength. In two studies, researchers found that adults were very good at remembering information they were told to focus on, and ignoring the rest. In contrast, 4- to 5-year-olds tended to pay attention to all the information that was presented to them – even when they were told to focus on one particular item. Proof that being childlike is a more joyful state.

In an article in the HuffPost, Elaine Vilorio wrote in her article, The Art of Noticing, “As a whole, we take everything for granted. If encountered frequently enough, people and tasks seem to become mundane and uninteresting. The walk to and from school becomes just another routine trudge. Your grandparents’ crankiness and need to talk about their past becomes a nuisance, something you are forced to listen to in order to maintain familial decorum. Your classmates and friends become people that you think you know well, or at least well enough…Your life, and everything in your life, seems to be relatively well-known. Yet, life is not like that at all. In fact, life is a wondrous, mysterious thing. Your life is something remarkable, with new things to be discovered every day, every hour, every second and every minute.

Life is so interesting! I loathe, absolutely loathe, when I see my classmates, colleagues, or friends tweet or talk about how bored they are. How can one be utterly bored in this life? To appreciate this life, one must learn the art of noticing. Noticing is a skill that, at first, requires effort. You have to have the patience to look a second time or a third time or a fourth time or a millionth time. It never ends because there is always something to catch your attention. And it is okay to falter, to become frustrated and stop noticing for a while. One must remember, however, to always come back and notice.

She continues…

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon a blog titled “Walking to Listen” by a Mr. Andrew Forsthoefel, a 23-year-old noticing connoisseur. Andrew decided to start walking across the United States with one motive: to listen. Although Andrew is not the only person to begin this feat, his goal — the goal of listening — struck me as unheard of. In describing the reason for his walk, he writes, “I’m walking the country to listen. There’s no such thing as the Average Joe, no such thing as a boring, uninteresting, unexceptional life. This walk is to honor that. Life is fast, and I’ve found it’s easy to confuse the miraculous for the mundane, so I’m slowing down, way down, in order to give my full presence to the extraordinary that infuses each moment and resides in every one of us.” And so, he walks and he meets people, really truly meets them, and he learns their stories. He learns to see the beauty everywhere he crosses because there is beauty in even the shabbiest places and people. Therefore, he notices.”

Joy becomes a moment by moment gift.  Today I’m talking about 5-star moments so we can all stop and take stock, reconnect with you by being in touch with your own delight. Today’s podcast is a reminder to savor the moments of your life. The in-between moments, because that’s where your personal magic lies. As we start this new year, my wish for all of us is that we find more joy. The beautiful part of this is that no matter how bad or how good our lives are, finding that joy is within our own power.

By small and simple things our lives play out and those who learn to relish the magic moments are the lucky ones who live in joy. And, here’s the fun part…the more you practice seeing these magic moments, the more of them you see. It’s like they expand and reproduce, just because you’re paying attention. So….you can magnify the joyful moments, just by looking for them.

Now that’s a great way to start out 2019,

Your challenge this week: find your 5-star moments and acknowledge them as they happen. Find your joy in the daily magic. Once it’s a habit, the way you see your story shifts into spaces of fuller joy and recognition of the moments that bring that joy. I used to try to find a magic moment in every day. It’s fun. I’d wait for some wonderful glimpse of joy and then I’d claim it. “This is my magic moment,” I’d say to myself, and I’d just move on letting it soak into my heart. Now I look for more than one.

Walt Whitman said, “Happiness, not in another place, but this place…not for another hour, but this hour…” What are you happy about right now?

Share this episode with someone who could use it today. Who do you wish joy upon? See you next week on the Love Your Story podcast.

It’s the last episode of 2018 and I want to thank all of you who are listening and all of those who have shared their brave and vulnerable stories on the show this year. It’s been a phenomenal year filled with crazy good episodes if I do say so myself.  I started this episode out wanting to do the BEST OF 2018, but realized as I surveyed the shows that if I did that it would be a VERY long episode, so my editor and I, pulled numbers at random to do a year-end review. Today’s episode does a quick reminder blurb from 10 of the top episodes of the past year. Listen in for some quick refreshers.

We talk about 3 angles regarding story on this podcast – the first is the past. When we have stories that are holding us back we need to do the work to reframe them so we can move forward in our full power. The second is the present. Becoming aware of the stories we are telling ourselves today, especially about ourselves, creates or diminishes our power to live well and be who we came to be. And third, is the future. Every day we plant the seeds for our tomorrow – for the next chapter in our story  and so the things we do today matter to our future story.  This is the focus of our first flashback for 2018 – Doing acts of kindness in the world to create a better story. One of the episodes we did this year – episode 89 was a live discussion with the group who had gathered to do random acts of kindness. In this blurb Rebecca Dahl Cookston and I are discussing her experience and the effects   – uncomfortable and satisfying, of the RAK.

Listen to the audio program to hear the conversation.

In episode 72 I open a discussion about a story archetype. Story archetypes are the repetitive characters we see in our stories because they mark crucial points within a story – these are found in fairy tales, but also in our real-life stories. In this episode, I’m talking about the Threshold Guardian or the thing or person that stands as a block to you getting something you want. It’s important to understand this concept so that when your threshold guardians show up in real life you can see them for what they are.

Listen to the audio program to hear the chosen segment.

One of our most popular series this year was Episode 73-75 The Search for Annie Schmidt. Annie Schmidt, the daughter of John Schmidt the pianist from the popular group, the Piano Guys, went missing in 2016. The subsequent search for her and the discovery of her body was filled with miracles and cooperation.

Listen to the audio program to hear a section from the trilogy where Annie’s mother talks about the miracle of hearing her daughter from the grave.

Jennifer Anderson was meditating and talking with God at 3 a.m. one morning and she was inspired to create a journal. This journal entitled 3 a.m. with God changed her career path and her focus as she focuses on helping people listen, hear and act on inspiration.

Listen to the audio program for a short segment of my chat with Jennifer.

In episode 93 I talk about another story archetype – the Herald. These are real. There are moments when we are called into the adventures of our lives. Do we say no or do we say yes?

Listen to the audio program for that segment.

Mark Shurtleff, a past attorney general of Utah, shared a vulnerable personal interview with me about the toll the difficult events of the past few years took on him. His public face got personal in this interview  – episode 96.

Listen to the audio program for the piece of our interview.

You want someone to understand you better? Share a story that illustrates why you feel as you do. This is a key story tool. Tune into episode 70 for a whole discussion on sharing stories to create understanding.

Tune into the audio program for a quick pointer about how to help others understand you better.

In episode 116 you get a special treat – the book – Key to your Super Self and how your Stories unlock your power in audio form. Here’s a blurb discussing how inner stories get created from a young age. To get this book in e-book form you can go to www.loveyourstorypodcast.com and a pop-up box will come up where you can sign up for it.

Tune into the audio program to hear the quick blurb from the book

One of the loudest most destructive stories that goes on in our heads is an attack on our bodies. Episode 76 is dedicated to a discussion on how to stop this and accept your fabulous, blessed body that allows you to do all the great things you do.

Tune into the audio program for some thoughts on loving our bodies.

One of our latest episodes was an interview with Donna Marino who lost her father in 9/11 – I was honored to get to discuss these events with her with an inside individual look at this national tragedy.

Tune into the audio episode for this clip from the Donna Marino episode.

I am honored to be a party to listening and recording the personal, vulnerable, and raw stories of loss and triumph, fear and conquering, standing back up in the arena after the hard stuff hits, and celebrating and discussing ideas that help us all create the best life stories on purpose. Thanks for being a part of the Love Your Story audience. I hope you listen weekly for empowerment and inspiration and share each episode with someone you know who could use a light. Tune in next week as we start 2019, and be prepared for another fantastic year of stories and support in creating YOUR best life story on purpose.

*There were soooo many good episodes and great stories in the past year. All of them deserved a spot in this episode, but we just couldn’t fit them all.

Welcome to the Love Your Story podcast. As we gather around the technology campfire and tell our stories, one of the stories we hope we never have to tell is one of losing a child. Of all the fears and tragedies, this one ranks in the top heartbreaks.

Today, my interview with Chris Jones is a discussion about his son Mitchell, who passed away from heart failure in 2013, and the Facebook page titled Mitchell’s Journey that has gained international attention as a place for healing and gaining an understanding of the process of grieving.

Chris Jones lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, Natalie and 3 living children. Their son, Mitchell Jones had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a catastrophic muscle wasting disease that is fatal.

Mitchell’s Journey has become a hope for many and his father speaks and shares insights on finding purpose, meaning and joy despite the difficulties we face. He talks about how gratitude is a great healer and how broken things mend. Eventually.

Stay tuned for Mitchell’s story, Chris’s story, and some raw discussion on facing one of the hardest storylines possible.

Vicky Harrison said, “Grief is like the ocean. It comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.”

Tune in to the audio program for Chris’s retelling of his experience with his son’s illness and passing.

For more information about Chris and Mitchell:

https://www.facebook.com/mitchellsjourney/

www.mitchellsjourney.org

www.instagram.com/mitchells_journey

#mitchellsjourney

#babiesmadeofsan

Mother Teresa said, “It’s not about how much we give, it’s how much love we put into giving.”

Call to action: Spend time with the people you love. Really spend that looking-in-the-eye/belly laughing time with them. Don’t waste a moment, you don’t know how many you have.

And, if you like the podcast, I’d appreciate you showing your appreciation for the show by leaving a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Also, remember the website – loveyourstorypodcast.com is always available with all the episodes, show notes, and tools like the 21 Challenges for creating your best life story on purpose. See you next week.

On September 11, 2001, nineteen men hijacked four fuel-loaded US commercial airplanes bound for west coast destinations. A total of 2,977 people were killed in New York City, Washington, DC and outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The attack was orchestrated by alQaeda leader Osama bin Laden. At the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, 2,753 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were intentionally crashed into the north and south towers, or as a result of the crashes.

The victims ranged in age from two to 85 years. Approximately 75-80% of the victims were men.

At the Pentagon in Washington, 184 people were killed when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building.

Near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when the plane crashed into a field. It is believed that the hijackers crashed the plane in that location, rather than their unknown target, after the passengers and crew attempted to retake control of the flight deck.

We all know of the tragedy of 9-11, you probably remember where you were at when you heard the news. Today I interview Donna Marino, a woman whose father, an electrician in the twin-towers, passed away on that fateful and terrible day. She takes us inside her story of events and shares how she worked through victimhood into a space her dad would be proud of – a space of releasing, renewing, and helping others through her work as a licensed clinical psychologist to do the same.

Dr. Donna Marino is a licensed clinical psychologist, certified yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner and positive psychology coach who has been working in mental health for over 20 years. Dr. Marino is a mom of two tween girls and is married to the love of her life, the second time around.  She is also the surviving daughter of her father who was lost in the terror attacks on the twin towers on 9-11. Here’s her story.

Tune in to the audio program for Donna’s story and experience in her own words.

For more information on Dr. Donna Marino:

www.inner-guidance.com

https://www.facebook.com/drdonnamarino, https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdonnamarino/, https://twitter.com/GuidanceInner, https://www.pinterest.com/drdonnamarino/, https://www.pinterest.com/innerguidance0137/

The Key to Your Super Self was originally an audio/e-book to help people become aware of the stories they tell themselves and how those stories either unlock their superpowers of self-love, faith and belief in our own possibility, or how those stories are key in causing us to live small lives.

We bring it to you on today’s podcast – the full audio version, as a Christmas treat for your mind-set empowerment.

If you prefer the e-book, send me an email at [email protected]. I’ll email you the link.