David J. Gailey Author

Make yourself the CEO of your own life.

Sometimes bad things happen.

But often, we add to our own suffering through the stories we tell ourselves. Maybe you’ve had that moment where everything felt fine, even peaceful, and then you received a phone call, an email, a text, or some piece of information that changed everything.

Or maybe you woke from a bad dream with your heart racing, only to realize it wasn’t real.

Later, you find out the information was premature. Or incomplete. Or completely wrong.

Nothing in the actual world changed.

But your emotional state changed completely.

Why?

Because the story changed.

I thought about this recently in relation to job titles.

Imagine being hired for a role with a title that sounds impressive. You feel good about it. Maybe it appeals to your ego. Maybe it looks good on a résumé. Maybe it makes you feel like you’ve arrived.

Then one day, without much warning, the company changes the title to something else.

Something less glamorous.

Something more functional.

But your actual work does not change.

Your responsibilities do not change.

Your skills do not change.

Your value does not change.

And yet, for a moment, you might feel diminished.

Not because the job changed.

Because the meaning you attached to it changed.

That is where so much of our suffering begins.

Less from the facts themselves, and more from the meaning we attach to them.

The ego loves comparison.

Better than.
Less than.
Important enough.
Not important enough.

And somehow, it is never satisfied for long.

But there is a path to freedom when we learn to notice the script running in our heads.

Is this true?
Is this useful?
Is there anything I actually need to do?

If there is an action to take, take it.

If there is not, come back to the present moment.

Recognize that you are more than the story you are telling yourself.

You may not control every circumstance.

But you can learn to recognize the old scripts that cause so much suffering and step beyond them.

Make yourself the CEO of your own life.

David Gailey
CEO of Me