A Hard Chapter Is Not the Whole Story

By Susie A. Taylor | Story Strategist | Susie Taylor Marketing | Join the World Referral Network for FREE!

Think about a book you have read and loved.

Some chapters may have been painful. Others confusing, unsettling, or difficult to get through. But you probably never assumed that one difficult chapter had to determine how the entire book would end.

Why do we sometimes assume that about our own lives?

When we are living through loss, failure, illness, disappointment, or major change, the experience can consume our field of vision. The chapter we are in begins to feel like the whole story.

It isn’t.

That does not mean we need to minimize what happened, search for a silver lining, or pretend every difficult experience was somehow good for us. Some things hurt. Some losses remain losses.

But a chapter can matter deeply without becoming the only lens through which we understand ourselves.

And the next chapter rarely announces itself with a dramatic turning point.

Sometimes it begins by asking for help.

Learning something new.

Rebuilding a routine.

Calling someone we've lost touch with.

Making one different decision today than we made yesterday.

These actions may seem too small to qualify as a new beginning. Yet many meaningful changes become visible only after we have been making small choices for a while.

Distance can change our understanding, too. Years later, an experience may still be painful, but we may see ourselves differently because of everything that came afterward.

If you are in a difficult chapter, consider three questions:

What chapter am I in now?

What do I want the next chapter to contain?

What is one small action that could move me toward it?

We can't always choose what happens in a chapter. We can, however, remain open to the possibility that another chapter exists beyond this one.

You don't have to know how the whole story ends to begin writing what comes next.

#PersonalGrowth #Resilience #LifeTransitions #NewBeginnings #SelfLeadership #Perspective