Changing The Internal Narrative

 We all have our internal narrative...actually many internal narratives. These are the voices in our head. The ones that go on and on talking to you about just about every subject under the sun. They are the ones who criticize you and chastise you for the behaviors your parents scolded you about a half a century ago. They are the voices that remind you of your failures. They are the voices are constantly judging you and everyone around you. 

We all have them, these internal narratives. In my path of yoga we call it the Monkey Brain. Never ceasing its chatter. However, we can exert control over these narratives. We can learn to let them come, say their words and leave. This is one of the prime tenants of meditation. We can also reprogram our narrative. This is purpose of such things as affirmations where we repeat either written or orally, and belief statement over and over. It is to reprogram the narrative.

Recently, I realized that I need to change the narrative in my own head concerning  the Theodora Project. 

For the longest time, the narrative in my head has been either apologetic or defensive. Seriously, when we started, the idea that you were going make professional administrative workers out of young African women, working in sex trade because they had no other alternatives, women whose education, culture, and language was massively different than the American work place, was almost ludicrous. And it was, in reality, incredibly difficult to achieve. There were so many times when I thought it was going to fail. So naturally you develop a narrative in your head that is almost apologetic, and defensive. In your mind, you feel you are constantly having to convince others that this will work while, at the same time, you are fearful it won't.

But, as I've posted frequently over the last 6 months, the breakthroughs achieved by our women have changed the reality. The reality is that we provide really good service to our clients and an incredible value. The reality is that we are now covering our costs. WE ARE BREAKING EVEN. If you are not engaged in the world of social impact you will not recognize what a big deal this is. And the rate of capability change is almost dizzying. Who would have imagined this in 2020/2021 when we were struggling just to do basic work and have a reasonable professional work environment. 

We are now facing a reality that we may reach a point where we are maxing out the capacity of our team. So it is time to add more people, to give more women the opportunity to transform their lives. Plus, the next phase in our plan is to prove we can scale (grow) this business and drive much greater social impact. That is requiring significant new funds. So I am back on the money raising trail. Only this time, I am gradually recognizing that people are reacting much differently to our story. That is because it is not just projection, it is actual fact. 

I am finding I need to change the narrative in my head. We are not this unproven concept. We have definitive accomplishments that are rare in the social impact world. Our story is not just hope. It is leveraging what we've proven can be done.

So I find myself working hard to reprogram my own personal narrative.