Last week I asked the question what makes a story a story. Today my question for you is, “why are stories so important to us?” I just finished reading The Time Keeper, by Mitch Albom. It is a parable about time verses story. At least that’s how it seems to me. We can count time or we can live in the story that is unfolding all around us. There is a line in the book, “With each new carving, he spoke out loud. He was doing what man does when left with nothing. He was telling himself his own life story.” I love that!
I sometimes think about the history of my people and the holocaust. There is a vast body of literature about the holocaust. So many stories. I remember thinking that this is how we have healed ourselves as a people. We have told and told our story and in it have found the strength to be new and light and alive. It is, I think, remarkable this power of story!
It is no small thing this power. It can be invisible and ignored and yet it is central in all our lives for both good and for bad. With conscious attention, the power of story, on so many levels, transforms our lives and the lives of those we touch. The question is how are we choosing to use this awesome human power? I can tell a story about someone else that will ruin that person’s life. I can tell myself a story about how small and inadequate I am and ruin my own life. And yet I can indeed change my story. It is mine to tell and if I choose to tell myself a new story I can make that new story my true story.
What is amazing to me is that it seems we no longer have to white wash ourselves of our stories when we enter the world of work. We are now being told we need our authentic stories in order to succeed. Why? I mean who cares about my story? There are two answers for the business world. One is, no one does care about your story. The other is that the right people care deeply because your story reflects their story and when used in the right way is a tremendous inspiration and creates a bond of trust and connection that is what attracts to you the customers you can truly serve.
As a storyteller I have always had a deep sense of the power of story. For many years it was only as a performer where I saw my audiences, young and old, listen in wonder as new visions unfolded before them. It leaves me in awe every time I witness the way a story touches a heart or a soul and makes a new path open for us to travel. I never thought I would find that wonder and awe in the world of business storytelling. But I did and I do everyday with all of you. I love stories and storytelling and even Storyselling! I guess that’s obvious! And I love the journey within that opens the way for new stories to emerge and be heard.
If you are yearning to let your story free and bring it out into the world then do it now! Don’t wait for some right time or way to do it. Trust yourself and open to the calling of your story to you. Then share that story in your life and in your business.