Crafting Your Story
What is your story?
Storytelling: Beyond Work—Into Life
You’ve likely heard about the importance of storytelling in your work, but what does that really mean? And more importantly, where else is storytelling shaping your life?
The short answer is we tell stories for many reasons, including to create a vision, share information, motivate/influence ourselves and others, leave an impression, or share an experience. We create stories to deal with uncertainties and make sense of all going on around us.. Stories are used to create safety, justify why we do or do not take action, and go after what we want in life.
More about that below
As a coach, I guide my clients in identifying and unraveling the stories they weave for themselves. My journey as an artist and photographer has led me to focus on getting out of my way in crafting my images and sharing the stories I have captured through my lens.
One of my personal goals is to break free from limiting beliefs about the thousands of photos on my hard drive and instead share my creativity with the world.
Like you, I often feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices. Too many similar images and thoughts can cloud our thinking. My goal is to focus on the message I want to convey and decide which image best captures it.
Recently, I’ve immersed myself in podcasts and programs of photographers I admire. While many focused on workflow and process, the most valuable insights revolved around creativity and—yes—storytelling through images.
These lessons reinforced a key belief I hold: unlocking creativity is essential to achieving our highest impact, whether in art or in life.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
We tell ourselves two kinds of stories. The first revolve around safety, uncertainty, and risk—stories that often reinforce our limiting beliefs. These tales, filled with “I’m not” narratives, explain why our deepest desires feel out of reach.
The second type of story comes from a place of possibility. These stories challenge and inspire us. They inject energy into our lives and encourage us to impact the world positively.
There is no need to dwell on the first kind—most of us are already experts at crafting dramatic stories that reinforce our fears and limitations. Instead, let’s focus on the “I am” stories—the ones where we step into our potential and craft the lives we truly want.
Our goal should be focused on creating the second type of story, the “I am” story.
Crafting Your “I Am” Story
The ‘I am” story is an invitation for you to reflect deeply on what you want to create in your life. What do you want to achieve?
What would it mean to accomplish your biggest goals, and how would that impact not only you but those around you?
It’s about sorting through the options in front of you, organizing them, and building a narrative that leads to action. Our lives, like our images, may never be perfect. But we have the tools to shape them—adding color, depth, and dimension to create a story that’s uniquely ours.
When you gain clarity on your desires, you can begin to explore the skills and resources at your disposal, pursuing your goals with energy and commitment.
Focus on these key questions:
- What do I truly want?
- Why don’t I have it yet?
- What’s standing in my way?
- What am I ready to do about it?
My further invitation is to schedule a call so that you can share your answers and together we can identify at least one clear action for you to take in crafting your first chapter.
Please click on the link below.
Create with Alec – https://calendly.com/agaconsulting/connectwithalec?month=2024-10