4057: Tell Your Story Three Times And No More by Richard Paterson of Think Less and Grow Rich on Emotional Growth

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Mental Health, Self-improvement, Education, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 4057: Richard Paterson explores how repeatedly retelling painful life events can quietly turn them into part of our identity, keeping old wounds alive long after the circumstances have passed. Drawing on the story of a woman still suffering years after her divorce, he explains how awareness and meditation can help us stop feeding old narratives and reclaim our attention. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.thinklessandgrowrich.com/tell-your-story-three-times-and-no-more/ Quotes to ponder: “Tell you story three times and no more.” “We wear our stories like familiar old coats that we wear, ready to offload them on anyone who will listen.” “When people realise that letting go of the story can be as simple as making a conscious decision to do so, it can be very threatening to the ego’s sense of identity.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Optimal Living Daily. Tell Your Story three times and no more by Richard Patterson of
0:07.7	Think Less and Grow Rich.com, and I'm Justin Mollick. This is our usual Sunday bonus episode where I share
0:14.2	another podcast in the Optimal Family. This episode is coming from Optimal Relationships Daily.
0:20.5	So here's Greg with the bonus post as we optimize your life.
0:28.2	Tell your story three times and no more by Richard Patterson of think less and grow rich.com.
0:36.4	There's an African proverb that goes, tell your story three times and grow rich.com. There's an African proverb that goes,
0:39.4	Tell your story three times and no more. I'd like to share the story of a woman I recently
0:45.2	spoke with who was really upset that her 25-year marriage had come to an end. Let's call her Laura.
0:51.7	As we talked, Laura told me how her former husband had been a narcissist,
0:56.2	how he only thought about himself, and how she believed the only reason he had stayed with her for so
1:01.1	long was because it was convenient for him. She cleaned the house, cooked the meals, fed and clothed
1:07.4	the kids, and provided an audience for the narcissistic stories he indulged in daily.
1:12.8	She had finally had enough and found the courage to leave him.
1:16.7	After listening to her story, I politely inquired,
1:20.6	So Laura, when did you guys split up? How long ago was this?
1:25.2	Almost eight years now, she replied.
1:28.0	I was surprised.
1:29.6	I was expecting her to say a few months, or a year maybe, as she was still clearly suffering
1:34.5	a lot.
1:36.0	While it can be healthy and cathartic to talk about our struggles with a close friend,
1:40.1	a family member, or a therapist, to let off steam, to get it off our chest, there comes a point
1:45.9	where it becomes self-harming to keep playing these stories over and over in our heads, and worse
	...

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