Storytelling Is Your Job
I received my first question through Instagram! Keri wrote, "I graduated college a couple of months ago and am about to enter the workforce. What's the #1 skill I should focus on?"
Focus on communication. I know, that's a vast subject. Specifically, focus on storytelling.
If you want to be great at what you do, storytelling is the critical skill you must master. Storytelling will give you a significant advantage as a therapist, salesperson, speaker, parent, influencer, entertainer—you name it.
Humans enjoy listening to a good story. Just visit the water cooler in any office building, and you will hear all sorts of stories. Until the written word came about, storytelling was how humans passed down information from generation to generation. With the invention of the written word, some of the emotion and nuances slowly disappeared but information could be distributed much faster and to more humans.
I tell stories whenever I communicate with another human in any form. Storytelling is an essential tool because stories slide past the conscious mind and go directly into the unconscious. At times, I've even recommended listening to the lyrics of a song or watching a movie. A single song or film can change the way someone thinks.
Here's an example from my life...
I had a client many years ago who was afraid she would be diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother was diagnosed when she was 46-years-old. My client was coming up on her 46th birthday and felt the odds were against her.
I told my client the story of when two doctors gave me a 10% chance of living. After two weeks in the hospital, I walked out alive. What I had going for me during those two weeks was that I majored in mathematics for a time in college… specifically, statistics.
I explained to my client that statistics mean very little when it comes to individual humans. Statistics are meant to be applied to large populations. When the docs told me that I had a 10% chance of living beyond the next 14 days, I immediately had two thoughts:
My doctor had a horrible bedside manner.
Those statistics didn't necessarily apply to me.
It was more advantageous for me to assume I would fall into the 10% rather than the 90%.
My client looked at me and asked, "So statistics don't apply to me?"
She is now in her 60s and has never had breast cancer.
The story that I told her wasn’t to inoculate her from being diagnosed with breast cancer. However, it did allow my client to see things from a very different (and more positive) frame.
Take the time to become a great storyteller, and you will increase your success in whatever you do.
