Is That Really True? Challenging the Stories You’re Telling Yourself

Have you ever noticed how quickly your mind fills in the blanks about a situation, about another person, or about yourself? Almost instantly, your brain writes a story. And most of the time, you don’t even realize it’s happening.

But those stories shape everything: how you lead, what you believe is possible, and how far you’re willing to go.

In this episode, Gayle Lantz takes a deeper dive into a theme that surfaced in her recent conversation with executive presence expert Paul Aldo: the powerful, and often invisible, role that self-narrative plays in leadership and personal growth.

As Gayle explains, “The biggest barriers people face aren’t external. They’re internal.” And the most limiting ones are often the stories we’ve been telling ourselves for years, stories about who we are, what we’re capable of, and what we deserve.

The good news? You get to decide the story. And changing it can change everything.

This episode challenges leaders to pause, look beneath their beliefs, and ask a deceptively simple question: Is that the only story available to me?

This episode covers:

• Why we are all “meaning-making machines” and what that costs us as leaders
• How the stories others tell about us (and the stories we think they’re telling) shape our behavior
• The connection between deeply held beliefs and the stories underneath them
• A practical two-question exercise to identify and reframe a limiting story
• How leaders can help their teams adopt more empowering collective narratives
• Turning fear into fuel, uncertainty into curiosity, and heartbreak into hope