I know an amazing guy who had an amazing career. He built his adult life in his favorite city. He discovered quickly that his career passions were travel and communications. So he built and sold a business that was all about travel and communications and had a blast doing it. He then shifted to more humanitarian efforts and got to travel around the world (again, through a totally different lens). And now he is blessed to be in a role where he supports others discovering what matters most and leading deeply satisfying lives.

I know another guy who had, well, a less-then-amazing career. He also lived in his favorite city. But he slogged through eight frustrating years in corporate America. He built a business that made a very small profit for most of its life, only making significant money when it was sold. He then started a new business, which was a miserable experience and failed painfully. He spent 10 years struggling to find what was next before finally, at age 54, starting to do the thing he has enjoyed the most.

Okay. If it isn’t obvious, these two guys are the same person. And that person is (drumroll) me! Same person. Two stories. Both true.

The point, of course, is that we have so many different ways we can tell our story, and we get to choose – in any moment, with any audience – the version we want to tell. Without any stretching of the truth, we can tell different versions by emphasizing different things. Here are a couple examples from my story above.

· I ran a travel publication company called Out & About for 8 years before selling it. It was an absolutely amazing experience. But I also was stressed about money until the very end. My two versions of that experience are both true, and my telling of that story varied over time. Needless to say, I choose to emphasize the first version.

· I worked in global health for 7 years, in and around the UN. I got to travel to the most extraordinary places (Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, India, China…) during those years, which was eye opening and inspiring. But, honestly, I was a fish out of water working in global health and, other than my passionate colleagues and the travel, I didn’t enjoy my day-to-day at all. My choice today, however, is to focus on the parts I loved and how they expanded my worldview.

I encourage you to think about how you are telling your story: in interviews, in meetings, at parties, on social apps. And next time you have the opportunity to talk about yourself, try to raise your awareness of what you are choosing to emphasize and how you describe the things you select. If you could use a little help getting your best story down, grab a discovery session and let’s get you over that hump.