How to Tell a Story
Highlights
- “Sharing a story is an act of courage and an act of generosity.” (Location 573)
- Finding your story requires the hard work of sifting through all your life experiences, all the phone calls, alarm clocks, and deadlines; the sunsets and taxes; the breakups and stumbles and epic fails; the home runs and stupid luck. You look through all that and try to identify the significant moments when you felt most like yourself, or the self you could finally see you wanted to become. (Location 603)
- You are looking for the moments where perhaps something happened that showed you glimpses of who you truly are. Moments that altered your life’s course or led you to discover something new. Turning points have occurred multiple times during your life, from big obstacles to seemingly mundane choices; these turning points have affected and ultimately changed you. (Location 611)
- Think about a time when you . . . • Felt an emotion: doubled over with laughter, burst into tears, or lost your cool. • Did something you never thought you’d do. • Tried to be something or someone you aren’t. • Discovered something about yourself, your environment, your family, or the world. • Changed your relationship with someone—for better or worse, a little or a lot. • Had a secret revealed—by you or someone else. • Stood to gain or lose something that mattered to you. • Made a tough choice for the right (or wrong) reason. • Found yourself saying, I do! I won’t! Hell no! I dare you. You couldn’t pay me to. It would be my greatest honor. (Location 624)
- Consider moments in your life when your patterns were broken: • “I’m never without my phone, but one day I left it in my car . . .” • “I always walk this way home, except the time I decided to take a detour . . .” • “I told everyone that I would never sign up for speed dating—but then . . .” An unexpected event usually kicks off the journey of a story—and the choices you make along the way lead to a bigger, lasting, overall change in you. Without this “out-of-the-ordinary happening,” the story could not have taken place. (Location 690)
How to Tell a Story
Highlights
- “Sharing a story is an act of courage and an act of generosity.” (Location 573)
- Finding your story requires the hard work of sifting through all your life experiences, all the phone calls, alarm clocks, and deadlines; the sunsets and taxes; the breakups and stumbles and epic fails; the home runs and stupid luck. You look through all that and try to identify the significant moments when you felt most like yourself, or the self you could finally see you wanted to become. (Location 603)
- You are looking for the moments where perhaps something happened that showed you glimpses of who you truly are. Moments that altered your life’s course or led you to discover something new. Turning points have occurred multiple times during your life, from big obstacles to seemingly mundane choices; these turning points have affected and ultimately changed you. (Location 611)
- Think about a time when you . . . • Felt an emotion: doubled over with laughter, burst into tears, or lost your cool. • Did something you never thought you’d do. • Tried to be something or someone you aren’t. • Discovered something about yourself, your environment, your family, or the world. • Changed your relationship with someone—for better or worse, a little or a lot. • Had a secret revealed—by you or someone else. • Stood to gain or lose something that mattered to you. • Made a tough choice for the right (or wrong) reason. • Found yourself saying, I do! I won’t! Hell no! I dare you. You couldn’t pay me to. It would be my greatest honor. (Location 624)
- Consider moments in your life when your patterns were broken: • “I’m never without my phone, but one day I left it in my car . . .” • “I always walk this way home, except the time I decided to take a detour . . .” • “I told everyone that I would never sign up for speed dating—but then . . .” An unexpected event usually kicks off the journey of a story—and the choices you make along the way lead to a bigger, lasting, overall change in you. Without this “out-of-the-ordinary happening,” the story could not have taken place. (Location 690)