In today’s world we are never short of access to a story. Daily in the media, the movies, gossip with friends; stories are far and away our most powerful form of communication.
But which ones are true? And which ones are useful and remembered?
I love this quote:
The destiny of the world is determined less by the battles that are lost and won than by the stories it loves and believes in. —Harold Goddard.
Goodard hits the nail on the head, because what we care about, believe in and act on are the stories we create about ourselves and the world.
We don’t run our lives on statistics, much as we would like to think we are that straightforward, we base what we do on the story we have created about the world that may run completely at odds to logic.
My point is that a lot of stories that are told are setup to make everything black and white. This is good, and that is bad. That is a win and that is a loss. But it is the story of the win or loss, or the triumph of good over evil, or the reverse that is remembered.
To create a story that will be remembered and acted upon requires an x factor or a ‘third way’. This is the soul of the story, the heart of it, where you inject what is moving and transformational into the story. This can be quite simple. It may be your reflections on looking at a beautiful flower in the garden, or your sudden rage at another driver on the road. Your honesty, your heart and soul if it is evident in the story will have it be compelling Tricky, Titilating and Tstories are a dime a dozen in the media, but the ones that sustain, like a beautifully sung note will have the heart and soul that makes up the Third Way of Story