Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, NY Times best-selling author and noted philanthropist. Currently, he is releasing socially-conscious music and touring his “Concert & Conversation” series in support of his book Life Is What You Make It.
“How I got here doesn’t tell me who I am”
“Open Hearted Hand” by Peter Buffett
What do you believe and why
do you believe it?
We have been living out of
stories that we’re told; Stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, stories
history books tell us, the newspapers tell us, and our parents tell us.
We decide whether we believe
in these stories or not, and build quite complex cases to justify our position. But where did these stories
begin?
If you look deep enough,
every story comes from fear or fearlessness.
• History books: Stories
written by the victors demonstrate this either by morals or by might. These stories are built
around “us vs. them,” and not just conquest of countries and people, but
nature and spirit as well.
• Parents: Stories told to
their children lived out as values and influences that are a direct
reflection of what they needed–and did or didn’t get–as children themselves.
• Society: Stories told
through a myriad of laws (spoken and unspoken), media and modes of behavior
that define what a community values and aspires to.
We act and react out of the
stories we believe in. We are constantly making choices–almost always unconsciously–from the
basis of what we believe. We live in a constant state of reacting from what we “know” to be true or untrue.
This is our past–collectively and individually–animating us. “Telling” us what to do based on
what we “know.”
This is reflected in the
frustration of the Occupy movement. Something’s wrong and it’s big. But what
is it? Something in the story is off track.
Is it really 99 percent vs. 1 percent? Or
is it 1 percent in all of us?
What we’re really looking for
is a new story–a story to live in to. Not old stories to live out of.
This country was “discovered”
as a commercial enterprise. Of course it’s devolved into a financial disaster!
All you have to do is read the first quotes of Columbus to see where we were
heading:
“They willingly traded
everything they owned … They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome
features … They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a
sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have
no iron. Their spears are made of cane … They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we
want.”
So now I’ll start the piece
over with:
What do you know and why do you know it?
We know with our hearts. We
know with our gut. Our body tells us what we know.
Our mind processes and
decides based on old information.
It’s time to not be afraid.
To listen again. And know that anything–everything–is possible.
It’s time to create the story
we want to live in to. And become that story ourselves.
Visit www.peterbuffett.com and Change Our Story to learn more.
Image courtesy of umjanedoan, licensed under Creative Commons.
