Hi, Reader,

Welcome to this week's Dare Yourself email: one idea I'm thinking about and one Dare to put it into practice.

💡 The idea on my mind this week

Think about a chapter of your life that was really challenging.

The layoff. The relationship that ended. The business that didn't work out. The years you spent taking care of everyone but yourself.

You've probably told the story of that chapter the same way for years: as something you went through, survived, even grew from.

I know this because I did it for 37 years.

Today is the 37th anniversary of the day my family and I arrived in the United States as refugees. August 4, 1989.

For almost all of those years, I told the story of being a refugee as a struggle I overcame. I told it that way to myself, on hundreds of stages, and in several of my books.

But recently, I decided to try an experiment: I retold this story to myself through a different lens.

Instead of looking at it as a struggle, I decided to look for what else was in it. And I saw something I had missed for decades: even in the hardest moments of that chapter, I was creating.

Creating a new vision for myself.

Creating the foundation for what I would share with others.

Creating the instrument -- my voice, learning to speak English without an accent -- with which I would do so much of the work I do.

Retelling that story through that new lens has given me a completely new perspective.

I’m not denying the challenges I went through.

But I see them differently, in a more expansive, creative way.

It’s helped me recognize that I have always chosen to create and build, even when things were difficult.

Doing this has been one of the biggest gifts I've ever given myself.

Here's why I am sharing it with you:

The facts of your past are real and fixed. But the meaning is yours to choose.

The story you choose to tell about your past shapes the choices you're making right now, what you believe you're capable of, and what you allow yourself to envision for your future.

Your past chapters are the palette from which you create your next.

And you can choose many different lenses through which to see them.

🎧 This week on the Dare Yourself Podcast

I recorded this week's Walk With Me episode on my morning walk today, on this special anniversary of coming to America 37 years ago.

I share three moments from my refugee chapter that I'd always told as struggle, retold through a lens that changed what I see in them, and in myself.

It's one of the most personal episodes I've ever recorded.

Walk With Me: How Your Story About Your Past Shapes What You Create Next

​Listen on Apple Podcasts​

​Listen on Spotify​

This week's DARE:

Pick one chapter of your life that you've always told as a story of struggle.

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hen ask yourself: What did I create during that chapter? Who was I becoming? What did I live through then that helps me create what I want now?

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etell the story to yourself through that lens. Then share the new story with someone you trust. Our stories become more potent when we say them out loud, and sharing the new version makes it yours.

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nd if you want to share it with me, I’d love to hear it. (I do read all the replies myself.)

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armly,
ataly

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.S. Every year, I celebrate August 4th, our American arrival anniversary, by eating a giant bagel with cream cheese. It was the first thing I ate on our first morning in America and it always tastes extra special.

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love how food connects us to memories.

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