Why fixing your character's worldview isn't enough
Under your protagonist's rule for how to live sits a low opinion of themselves, and an ending that fixes only the rule lands early.
When your character's best quality looks like a danger
The Lie makes your protagonist's best quality look like a danger, so the change doesn't add a strength, it points the one they already had somewhere new.
Your protagonist's best quality is there in the first scene. Their false belief makes it look dangerous.
That false belief is what StoryDNA calls The Lie, and it relabels what they're good at. Openness reads as an invitation to get hurt. Tenderness reads as weakness.
Under The Lie, your protagonist usually holds a low opinion of themselves. That makes what they're good at unrecognizable, so your protagonist can't see it as theirs.
So let your reader glimpse it in unguarded moments. Tenderness from someone who acts tough. Brilliance from someone who doubts themselves. Your reader sees what your protagonist can't.
In Coco, Miguel's gift for music sits behind his family's ban on it. Honoring his family feels like it means betraying himself.
A person's best ability can look dangerous to them for as long as their protective belief is in charge.
When your protagonist finally reaches The Truth, the corrected belief, it doesn't give them a new quality. It points their best one somewhere new. That's what StoryDNA calls The Strength, and it's why a good change feels inevitable.
Write down what your protagonist will be good at by the end. Then find the first scene where it shows, and what The Lie calls it there.
Why your character keeps believing the lie
Your protagonist keeps their false belief because it is paying them something real, and the payout should be good enough that someone in the story admires it.