The 10 Year Challenge

There’s a fun little viral challenge making its way through social media at the moment called the 10 year challenge — where you post your profile picture from 10 years ago and compare it to the one of today. 

All over the internet, people are posting side by side pictures — some in which there are noticeably drastic changes in appearance, while others look relatively the same. Some people are asking the prolific question, “How well did you age?” 

This is a golden opportunity to sprinkle some storytelling to your audience by taking it a step further — and instead of focusing on how well you aged, focus on how much your story has changed. 

This is actually an exercise and story prompt I give a lot of my storytelling students — to look back 10 years ago and write about what their life looked like then, versus what your life likes like now. 

We often don’t even realize — or give ourselves credit for how much we’ve been able to do and accomplish, how much we’ve been able to overcome and rise above, in the span of 10 years.

Most all of the storytelling work I do is with stories of Transformation.

These are the stories that examine the big shifts and changes people experience that  creates new realities, new awareness, and new successes. 

If you take a few minutes to not only dig up a picture of yourself from 10 years ago, but then to share the story of where you were in your life…. then stand that pictures and story up against who you are today, I challenge you to look for the transformation.

Where has there been a big change, a shift in perspective that has helped you move your life forward in a positive direction?



Everybody has junk — okay. Everybody has drama and setbacks. Those dark pieces of our stories often set us up for the big transformations that lead to the light. 



What I love so much about this 10 year challenge running around the internet is it’s giving people an opportunity to not only think through their own story — even if just for a minute — and then share those transformations with others.

When we share our own stories of transformation, we show others what is possible. It can give them hope and inspiration during their own dark days. 

When you share your story, you shine a light. 



Will you share a piece of your story today?

I’m going to be featuring this 10 year challenge trend in my online community today on Facebook —  LIGHTbeamers Community. 

Every Wednesday, I give a prompt to the members and invite them to Share their story with us.

I invite you to join us over there today — and share your own 10 year transformation story with us. Give it a try. The Lightbeamers Community on Facebook is a safe, private group where you can practice telling your story and get more comfortable with sharing it with other people. 



And in case your curious— I’ve posted my own 10 Year Challenge on my Instagram and Facebook pages today.  

Be sure to drop me a comment so I know you checked it out. I’d love to hear from you!