carved in stone

“Believing that your qualities are carved in stone creates the urgency for you to prove yourself over and over”

Carol S. Dweck, PhD, Mindset: A New Psychology of Success and Achievement

The image above is from a friend and gifted sculptor, Steve Fraser, who infuses life into stone with his work to the point that you can almost see the face he created in the stonework smiling, breathing comfortably, ever-growing in awareness and contributing to the world around him.

The reverse process of encasing life in stone does not work so well.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to be on a firm foundation in life with some consistency, some continuity to rest in.  But creating a rock-solid version of the story you tell yourself about the way things really are leaves no room for potential, mystery, poetry, hope, distress, recovery or resilience.  If your truth is already carved out then what’s the point of getting up in the morning?

Resilience in the face of turbulence calls for the courage to be creatively flexible.

What could happen if you would:

• Listen to the thoughts you think
• Notice the words you choose to use
• Become aware of the emotions that arise
• Recognize how your story sprouts directly from the frequent repetition of these
• Believe you are absolutely creative enough to re-write several possible storylines
• Re-script the thoughts and words to craft a stellar ending with killer plot twists!

The story grows, changes, evolves and you have a key role to play in writing the ending.