What’s your story?

Is it just ME, or do you, too, love listening to a well told story?

So, how good is your story?

Would someone want to listen?

Could sharing your story help – or heal - someone else?

In a recent blog (You’re never too old to go to camp), I shared a bit about an amazing experience I had a Venture Camp (VC) 1.0.

While there, a member of the VC Team asked if I would sit down for an interview; I was happy to do so.

I didn’t know the questions in advance, there was no “rehearsal”; just a half-dozen, or so, questions, and it went very smoothly.

During the interview, a couple of people quietly slipped into the room.  After the interview, someone asked me how I had responded so quickly and provided so much information in spontaneous response. 

My immediate response to that questions was, “It’s my story; I better be able to tell it”.

Here’s my question to you: do you know your story?  Can you speak it, do you own it, does it flow, and is it worth hearing….?

Now, I’m not saying that your story needs to be wildly fascinating or above average in any way; mine isn’t!  Just own it.   Own it with conviction, with passion, and with purpose.  Then, be willing to share it – and leave other grateful for having heard it…

When you speak from experience, you cannot be wrong.

When you speak with passion – and compassion – you will always be right.

When you speak from the heart, people get it.

Honesty resonates; so, too, does lack of it. 

I had a fascinating conversation with a member of The International Women’s Leadership Association (TheIWLA) today.  Her story was not to tell her story when and where it need not be told.  Her story is profound and full of pain.  It is also full of triumph and that’s where she wants the story she shares to begin.

She gets that she is where she is today, quite possibly, because of all she had to endure in her past.  I would agree, yet she will not allow herself to be labeled “victim” based on current, more favorable conditions in her life.  She wants to empower others with what is possible, not gain your sympathy for what was.  What a story!

Circumstances, audiences, timing, and purpose are but a few of the elements that may determine what story you should tell at any given time…  That is not to suggest you create a story just to be heard!  When you know the “role” you are playing in any set of circumstances, let you brain take you to your most powerful reference points – your experiences – then let your heart take over and you will always have a story worth telling and a story worthy of sharing, a story others will be glad they heard.

So, IS it just me, or do you, too, appreciate when others share with you what will help you, not them, the most?

Own your story!

Share it!