“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it”

I was in this amazing bookshop over the holidays called Hatchards of Piccadilly.

It’s very olde world with wooden staircases and men in moleskin and velvet jackets and they had little cards with famous quotes dotted around and I saw this one.

“History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it" by Winston Churchill.

It made me laugh because it was so confident and cheeky. It also reminded me of the saying, ‘history is written by the victors’. So what we read is pretty much from a particular perspective that may or may not be accurate to what actually really happened.

So how is this relevant to us?
Well, I think being aware of the perspective we use to look at things is very powerful.

Things happen in our lives and we can look at them through all kinds of lenses - negative, positive, curious - we can look at the same thing as a catastrophe or as a great opportunity.
You can say, ‘why does this happen to me, I’m so unlucky’ or you can say, ‘this isn’t so great but at least such and such didn’t happen and now we can do…’

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Winston Churchill would have looked at the facts of what happened in the time he was Prime Minister from a particular perspective and written his history about the choices he made during the Second World War. Other historians may agree or disagree with him.

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So when it comes to you, when you look at your life, your own history and even the present and future, what perspective or lens are you using?

What perspective do you want to use?
​Winston Churchill took a positive perspective - how about you?

If you’re going to write your history, will it be kind?​

Be Fearlessly You
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Tracy
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