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Welcome to this edition of the Take Charge of Change podcast. We live in a world of calculation, systems and logic. And yet, as human beings we are wired to relate to stories and to be motivated and inspired by stories. In this edition of the podcast we will explore the power of story.

Stories play a huge role in our lives but most of the time we are not conscious of their impact. Without your personal and community stories you will have a loss of context.  You lose the necessary maps to properly understand your world.

To harness the power of story in your own life you need to look at your life as a quest. A journey with meaning. It's our life journey that reveals meaning. Eric Greitens, in his wonderful book “Resilience” discusses this concept. He says, "you figure out the purpose of your life by living your life. You give meaning to your quest by what you do and say and suffer. The challenges you face and the choices you make create the meaning of your story. The harms, dangers, temptations, and distractions that confront you are obstacles, yes, but it's only by wrestling with those obstacles that your purpose can be understood."

This is important because knowing our history can make us more resilient. This means being intentional about reflecting on our past victories, past life lessons and relationships we've had and currently have, and how these relationships provide us with strength, wisdom and support. A strong sense of the past, cultivated by reliving our stories, make us stronger and helps us to deal with the hardships of the present. We need to write the stories down and go back to them on a regular basis because it's so easy to forget them.

Reflect on your stories and be strengthened before challenges emerge. These are not only stories that relate to your personal life but stories that could be helpful to your business, your volunteer organizations and your family. Each sphere of your life should have helpful stories that embed  wisdom and encouragement. Storytelling is not just about remembering what happened but trying to understand and effectively learn from what happened. Writing , drawing and then explaining are great ways to process the events of our lives and to help us build story’s. As well, other peoples stories help to give us role models for storytelling and building powerful narratives.

Resolve now to begin building into your schedule a regular time for reflection and journaling so that you can capture the powerful stories that you experience, both in your personal life and in the life of your family, and of the people you collaborate with professionally. A great book on this topic is The Power of Story: Rewrite Your Destiny in Business and in Life by Jim Loehr this link will take you to more information on the book.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Take Charge of Change podcast. For more information be sure to visit our website at www.takechargeofchange.com. 

Download our free e-book the Resilient Professional to get more information on strategies to improve professional resilience. Contact us if you'd like to start a conversation about how we can help your staff and teams to be more personally and professionally resilient.