We are hearing about it more and more in the business setting, using stories in your marketing evokes an emotional response and inspires people to do business with you and buy from you…
We hear about it in Leadership… if you want your people to follow your vision then we invite them to own the big story around that vision through the stories…
As speakers we educate from the stage best when we don’t just share the data and the statistics but we also share the feeling an emotion around the message… stories… Brene Brown says that, ‘Story telling is sharing data with soul attached’
And then on the news in the last few days about the recommendations for screen time for our children… our kids are spending far to much time in front of screens instead of in front of us hearing our stories and having stories being read to them or reading heir own…
When I think about the power of stories in my life… I remember story time at school and listening to the Dream time stories of our Indigenous Australians and being mesmerised… lessons and learning passed down via their imagination through stories.
I recall us sitting around the table on holidays with our extended family telling stories of us growing up and my nieces saying, ‘Aunty Julie, tell us another story about Dad when he was little’… stories about our youth, our fears, our mistakes, our funny moments… never underestimate the power of them to help our children own their own story, know that we didn’t always get it right and gain perspective. And then their are the laughs and entertainment value!
Jack coming home in grade 2 and excitedly telling me about the stories that Mrs Johnson had told them about when she was at school and how different things were and how much he learnt about how things used to be… history… when I told her about how much he enjoyed it, I remember her saying that with he curriculum these days there was little time for story telling.. shame about that… any wonder we are craving it as adults.
I remember Thomas coming home one day after I had started walking to school (a decision that was tough for me, and I did feel a little judged on… should he really be walking to school on his own!), and then that day he came home and excitedly, as he fought for his words to find the right ones, told me about the baby plover he had seen… sharing a story with me… HIS story… the impact on him, his communication and his self esteem would not had been the same if it had been my story and me showing him the baby bird… the gift of him having some space to be independent.
And then I recall Flash, she lost his Dad when he was 9, telling me that he wasn’t sure that his memories of his Dad were his memories or the stories he had been told… how powerful and important those stories were for him.
And then my boys, losing their Dad… I now know first hadn’t that their memories will be strengthened and coloured in and brought to life by the stories we all tell about their Dad…
And then their are the stories we tell ourselves or that we choose to adopt as our own… and perhaps forget it is a choice… like the time a Hairdresser told me that I should give up hairdressing and do something else as I would never be any good at it… her story about me that I choose too believe for a while… and then I remembered that I don’t have to own her story… I can write my own damn story!!
I wish she could see me know and the wonderful book I am in! 
