"Well," I said, "let's take the whole 'rich handsome prince' fantasy that many women have. Why do you think this archetype prevails in our society? Why do you think a woman would want a perfect, rich, handsome prince to sweep her off her feet and spoil her, love her, and elevate her above everyone else?"

"Umm... for status?" Zac guessed.

"Go deeper than that. You need to figure out what the prince represents. The prince is a symbol — or metaphor — for an idea about one's self. When a person who could have anyone picks you, you feel worthy. She's craving worthiness. She's craving the feeling of being chosen; being special; being extraordinary. The fact that he is rich also plays a role because she craves the security and freedom that money provides."

"So, that's a biological need?"

"Yes, but ignore that for now. She wants him to be fun and adventurous because she is craving adventure in her life. She probably wants him to be tall and fit. But why? It's because, generally speaking, she wants to feel feminine, relative to him.

And so, deep down, the prince is just a physical representation of a specific concept of herself: a feeling about who she is. She's not craving the prince. She's craving the feeling of being the type of woman that a prince chooses. When the prince walks into her life, she suddenly gets to experience herself as worthy, special, loved, adventurous, secure, feminine, sexy. As soon as her subconscious belief system entangles with the prince symbol, she gets to experience herself as all of those things relative to him. Are you following?"

Zac nodded. "Yes. Okay, so... it's like a language?"

"Yes! Exactly like a language," I replied. "In a written language, we use words to represent concepts. Each word is a symbol that represents an idea. It's the same with the prince: he is a symbol that represents these ideas — 'I am worthy,' 'I am special,' 'I am adventurous,' etc. Relative to him, this woman gets to physically experience herself as all of those things.

Now, imagine you are an actor on an empty stage in a theatre. You stand in the center of the stage and assume a role. You become the character at a deep, subconscious level. As you do this, all the props, environments, circumstances, other characters — literally everything you need to experience yourself in that role will find a way onto the stage. Shakespeare was spot on — 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.'"

"Can you give me an example?" Zac asked.

"Sure. Let's say there's a woman named Taysha. Taysha subconsciously has low self-worth and believes there are no good men out there. She thinks, speaks, and acts that belief out in her reality. She complains to her girlfriends about men. She lets men walk all over her. She has low standards. She puts up with bullshit.

Now, let's remove the physicality of this scenario and just look at Taysha's consciousness. She obviously holds a deep, subconscious belief that she is unworthy, and there are no good men out there. If she didn't hold that belief, she'd be thinking, speaking, and acting differently. Right now, she is standing on a stage, playing the role of an unworthy woman with low standards, living in a world with no good men. And so the play will materialize everything she needs to experience herself in that role. She'll encounter a slew of men who treat her terribly, but these men are merely actors in her own play. Relative to these men, she feels unworthy — which is what she subconsciously believes about herself. If physical reality is a language, and everything that manifests in her life is a word, then she is literally writing her own story with her subconscious belief system. Are you still following?"

"Yes, I think so," Zac said.

"Good. Now, this also explains why people commonly experience a pattern I'll call 'different places, different faces, same thing.' For example, let's say Taysha is cheated on repeatedly, then dumped. Six months later, she finds herself in the same dysfunctional relationship, but with a different man. In this case, both men act as props, giving her a physical experience of her low self-worth."

"But why does the same scenario show up?" Zac asked.

"Because she hasn't changed," I replied. "If she still has low self-worth, she'll find herself in a new relationship that allows her to experience that. Even though they are two different men, they still represent the same concept of herself, the same essence. These men are like synonyms in a language, where multiple words can represent the same idea. If her consciousness keeps writing the same story, then reality will keep manifesting synonyms. Does that make sense?"

Zac nodded. "So, how does she change it? How does she get the prince to show up instead of the losers?"

"She has to save herself."

"But how?"

"By writing her own story. You see, most people let the world write their story for them. They let the world tell them who they are. They read the story that shows up in their external reality as if it were a factual book, without realizing that they are simultaneously writing the book. As long as you let the world tell you who you are, you can't assert any control over it.

So this is how you save yourself: you decide who you are and live as that person. This is a very, very, very difficult thing to do. Believe me — it's been the struggle of my entire life. It's been my greatest challenge, and I'm still figuring out how to do this.

It's so difficult because you have to believe in something that you can't physically observe yet. Imagine that all the symbols in your reality told you you're poor, stupid, and worthless. Imagine teachers telling you you'll never amount to anything. Imagine parents not giving you any love. Imagine living in a derelict environment with very little money. All the information coming into your senses tells you you're poor, stupid, and worthless, and so that's the story that continues manifesting in your external reality. As soon as you decide that you are not worthless, that your life has a purpose, and that you are smart and capable, you are choosing to believe in something before you see any evidence of it. That's an uncomfortable place to be. Maintaining that inner conviction requires vision, focus, and persistence in the face of incredible self-doubt. The whole world will tell you you're delusional and crazy because they can't see what you can see in your imagination. Writing your own story is a lonely and difficult journey to embark upon, but it's a necessary one.

And you can't just write a new story at a conscious level. You can't just think 'I am successful' and expect success to show up. That doesn't work. If you genuinely were successful, you would be speaking and acting in an entirely different way, not just thinking, 'I am successful.' There is plenty of New Age literature telling you to just think about what you want, and it will all show up. That's bullshit. I can think to myself, 'I am generous' all I like, but that is just an unexpressed concept of myself. I can say to my friends, 'I am generous,' and that's a denser expression of what I believe. But the densest expression of who I really am is what I do. It's my actions. When I act out of generosity, just because it's an expression of who I am, then I am truly generous. I get to physically experience my generosity — which previously, at the level of thought, was just a conceptual idea about myself.

Thus, if you want to change your external reality, you need to express a new version of yourself into the world via thought, word, and deed. Once you change Who You Are, you'll notice reality rearrange to give you a physical experience of your new-and-improved self. Are you still following all of this?"

Zac nodded.

"Okay. I hope I'm not boring you. I'm just thinking out loud. Sorry if it sounds like word vomit."

"I'm enjoying it," Zac said. "Keep going."