The fastest way to prosper—to feel more alive—is to tell better-feeling stories.
It’s Mary-Elizabeth, and this I know for sure:
Our stories are like seeds: they bear matching crops.
Just as oranges don’t grow from apple seeds, prosperity doesn’t grow from tales of woe, no matter how justified they are.
Prosperity grows from stories that help us feel good, or better, about life.
On a basic level:
Our beliefs aren’t always the truth but stories we tell so much they stick. Our beliefs drive our behaviors, which reap bitter or sweet outcomes. Our outcomes reinforce our stories and the wheel of our fortunes keeps turning into good-feeling or bad-feeling territory.
Here are the top 5 stories—beliefs—that guide what I do.
1. Our woes are spiritual matters in disguise.
When we don’t know what we are—creative spirits with staggering capacity—we outsource our power. We shall overcome and come alive by making the mind-body-spirit connection.
2. As within, so without.
Our inner world—the way we think and feel—creates our outer reality. To make prosperity, we must shift from retelling how bad things are to start imagining how we want them to be.
3. Lightening up is the fast track to prosperity.
The better we feel, the better we can access great ideas, curiosity, inspiration, vision, intuition or inner knowing that lead us toward lives and communities of our dreams.
4. Prosperity grows from neighborhoods up, not institutions down.
Our prosperity—aliveness—requires caring communities and caring economies, or benevolent business /swapping / sharing activity. Those start where we live.
5. All neighbors have something to offer.
“[Prosperous communities] have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”—Jane Jacobs
If you like or are curious about those beliefs, read my LinkedIn newsletter, The Prosperity Papers.
A taste of the stories I write is below. Get a monthly recap by email.
Nibble, nibble…
Heeding FDR’s call to become fairly radical
On being WILLING to be a genius + the secret of feeling
3 quality questions to help you remember or reveal your wonderpowers