It’s hard to get anyone to truly hear your story until it’s personal. We have to make the story personal.
For the story to have impact, it has to be personal. Personal stories are the best stories for transferring ideas from one person to another.
Listening to someone else’s personal story only gets me so far. The rest of the distance is covered by me. I have to make the story MY story. That is what it means to make the story personal.
If you write on the first few pages of the notebook and hand me a largely empty notebook, I will read what you wrote. If it is honest and true, I will “get” your story. Then, I will write my story next to yours.
I will fill up the notebook.
I will fill up two more.
Then I will pass the notebook along to somebody else. If I have been honest and true, they will “get” our story. Then, they will write their story. Right next to ours.
This is the process of transferring ideas from one person to another.
This is the process of making each person a part of the story.
However, in order for me to pass the notebook along to the next person, you had to pass it along to me. You had to relinquish control of the notebook and maybe even the pen. You had to entrust it into my hands. You had to hope that what you set down as the start of the story gave me enough to write my part of the story in a way that aligned with your original vision.
Most importantly, you had to give your vision over to me.
It’s not yours any more. That has to be OK.
You have to trust your writing.
You have to trust my writing.
You have to trust the next person’s writing.
That is how you make the story personal.
If you aren’t ready to do that, then don’t pretend you are. And don’t expect anyone else to be.
Illuminate Possibilities 