Tell More Stories With This 1 Tool

Blake, why on earth do I need to be a storyteller?

Great question!

Being able to tell a story is the cornerstone of communicating with…

… your partner… your kids… the group of people at the dinner party you got dragged to even though she knew you wanted to stay home and watch the game… your co-workers, boss and customers

The oldest form of communication, storytelling, has many unique properties that act almost like magic. It’s the reason you can determine a regular story from an unbelievable one.

When told correctly, stories will cause the synchronization of heartbeats within the listeners.

There is a reason the bible chronicles an ongoing set of stories, not just a group of facts to live by.

63% of people remember a story from a presentation. 5% remember a statistic. (oh the irony)

Let’s explore a tool that will leave you with an endless supply of great stories to tell.

Morning Pages

I’ve tried to maintain a journalling practice since my trip to Thailand in 2017.

I say try as if I’ve had any amount of success.

I think I’ve filled a grand total of 2 average-sized journals in 5 years. But something is clicking because 1 of the 2 took less than 365 days last year.

Progress!

My journalling method of choice on and off throughout this time? Morning Pages.

The 10 minutes of my morning where I word vomit whatever is in my brain onto the desperately empty page in front of me.

Regardless of how crazy, embarrassing or unclear it might seem. Which is most of the time…

In his book, Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks explains the key to this is to not stop writing for the entire duration, even if your flow of consciousness stops. Write colours, numbers or a list of places you’ve visited until another thought pops into your head.

The goal of this exercise is to identify potential thoughts that could later be formed into stories or anecdotes that could support another story.

ignore spellng grammar punctuation for this exercise

Take this entry from some time in 2018:

How many stories can I pull from this page?

• The Hawaii trip that never happened

• The start of my concert photography journey

• Almost crashing my drone 900ft down a cliff

• The ongoing saga of my tinnitus

• Definitely nothing about band camp

So what are you supposed to do with all these stories?

Tell them!

The purpose of storytelling is to build relationships.

Connect more deeply with your spouse, make your friends laugh, scare your kids into wearing ear plugs at concerts so they don’t end up like you with hearing aids at age 40 after standing in front of the 10 foot speakers at the music festival in Thailand that one time… or something like that.

The only way to improve your storytelling abilities — as with anything in life — is through practice.

Another time, we’ll check out some methods of really increasing the impact of your stories!

The Refinery

• Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks

• Homework for Life (Another Great Tool)

• What are Morning Pages?