My 14-year-old son wants to make movies.  He said to me the other day, “The story is king.  It’s everything.”

I agree.  When you hear a story about someone being successful, or surviving an illness, or overcoming enormous odds to make their dreams come true, it inspires you.  It reminds you that anything is possible.  That you can do it just like they did it.

And your own story might inspire others.

As Canadian writer Charles de Lint said, “Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.”

Then there is the story you tell yourself.  That inner voice that says, “You can’t do that.  You have to prepare more.  You’re not ready yet.”

It takes work, but you can change the story in your head.  You can adjust the messages you tell yourself and start hearing, “You have all you need.  People want what you have to give.  The world is waiting for you to take action.”

That inside story might be the most powerful one of all.

Start writing your own story today.  Page one.  The best is yet to come in the next chapter.

As poet Muriel Rukeyser said, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”

Stories change the world.