Transition Tales: Stories To Live By

Michael sounded perplexed when I asked him what first steps he wanted to take to get his sustainable small business started.

“Well, ideally, I’d like to do a,b, and c” he said “…and that’s all very well, but there’s a problem with this plan.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Well, I never do what I say I’m going to. So this is pointless!”

The stories we tell ourselves about how the world is and how we show up and operate within it have a huge influence on our chances of transitioning to a more sustainable way of living and working, as this example clearly demonstrates.
In the industrial growth society, our unsustainable lifestyles are perpetuated by the collective stories we subscribe to that tell us that money is more important than life, that economic growth is a must, that our worth is determined by our qualifications and status etc. etc.  In order to effect the transition to a life sustaining society, we need a collection of equally powerful, life affirming stories.

Enter a courageous and resilient young lady called Steph Bradley, with whom I had the pleasure of spending some time last weekend. Steph is from the Transition Towns Network and  is currently 5 months into a community walk around Britain to collect stories, Transition Tales, which will then be compiled into a publication in 2011.

You can read about her progress on her blog. From the short time I spent with Steph, it became clear to me that her journey has already had a positive effect on the many people she’s met. Not only is she collecting life-affirming stories that we can all share by reading her book, but she is also cross-fertilising some wonderfully practical sustainable living ideas as she goes. What a refreshing and very human way to share useful information and ideas!

On a personal level, we are free to choose to change the stories we live by. Where they are deeply embedded and undermining our progress, we can create our own tales of transition, accounts of the direction our life is taking that support our intentions and dreams.

Incidentally, Michael quickly realised the effects his “tales of torture,” as he referred to them, were having on his business prospects. As the newly reasserted author of his own destiny, he made the decision to be dependable, to honour his promises to himself first and ultimately to become reliable in his relations with others.