What’s Your Story?

Are you a good storyteller, maybe even a great one? 

Most people don’t consider themselves good storytellers, but the fact is, we are telling ourselves stories all the time, and we believe them. There’s the one about being too old or too young. About not being smart enough. About being cheated out of the promotion. About your boss’s bias against you. About the great life you will have when you quit your job and become your own boss. Etc. 

Human beings were telling stories before we had language. We would draw or paint them in pictures. Our minds have evolved not as logic processors, but as story processors. Neuroscientists have shown that the mind responds to story the same as the lived event. Say that aloud to yourself three times. “The mind responds to story the same as the lived event. The mind responds to story the same as the lived event. The mind responds to story the same as the lived event.”

Our stories build their own neural networks and synaptic connections. They become wired in our brains. They become embedded in our muscle memory. They inform the decisions we make and how we make them. They determine how we approach our colleagues, our families, our friends, and even strangers. They impact our mood and even our energy level. 

Most of us have stories that inspire us. Perhaps it’s a story of someone we know overcoming what seemed like impossible odds or having an incredible stroke of genius. These are our guru stories. We all have our gremlin stories as well. These are the ones that limit us, that get us down, that cause us to doubt ourselves. 

Enlightened managers pay attention to their stories, and they pay attention to the stories of those who work with them. When they are hearing gremlin stories, whether their own or others, they know how to turn those gremlins into gurus. How? That’s another story.