Good storytelling is at the heart of your life

A short reflective exercise on the stories of your life

Storytelling is one of the most critical skills you will ever have in your life and in your career.

Storytelling has existed for thousands of years and it is one of the core things that make us human.

It exists in every culture and society around the world. It has been one of the most useful skills available to humans since the earliest civilizations.

Humans are meaning machines — we are constantly yearning for meaning.

We want to tell and listen to stories because stories evoke our senses and imagination.

Stories create a sense of community. We build bridges through stories.

When we tell a story, we are actually painting a picture with our words.

In this piece, I will introduce an exercise for you where you will reflect on the most significant stories of your life.

Exercise: What are the deepest stories of your life?

Think about the most important stories of your life below.

To get you started and to provide some examples, I will share some of the most important stories of my life:

Selected Stories of My Life

· My parents sold their cattle to allow me and my siblings to get a good education.

· I got separated from my family at the age of 10 for my education and stayed in difficult conditions of a state dormitory for 7 years.

· I applied for 15 schools for a Ph.D. after getting my undergrad degree. I got rejections from all of the programs and got devastated. I started doing a masters and worked for 45 hours (academic and professional work) to better prepare myself for a PhD. Two years later, I got accepted from several Ph.D. programs.

· I had to write four academic quality articles in just 4 days during my Ph.D. comprehensive exam at McGill University. It was the most intense, stressful, and productive period in my life.

Now, it is your turn.

What are the deepest stories of your life?

Write down about the most important stories of your life below.

Choose 4 stories and write them down in 4 short paragraphs.

Here are further reflective observations and questions on storytelling.

I wrote these pages after watching House of Cards on Netflix.

Please have a look and try to respond to reflection questions and points.

Exercise 2: Your Life Story and Biography

Please write down key words, events, phrases that are significant in your life using hashtags.

You can refer to the stories of your life, turning points, cities/places, people, institutions, significant events, experiences, successes, failures, learning, challenges, problem solving etc.

Choose as you wish.

The last 3 hashtags are about your future — you can imagine about your future and write down about it.

I hope you enjoyed these short reflective exercises.

We all need to invest in our storytelling skills and practice.

Through stories, we make connections among the patterns of life. We create and share meaning.

Through stories, we construct narratives of our life. We understand our life through metaphors. We summarise our learning.

Through stories, we attempt to discover what is remarkable and meaningful amidst the noise of life.

Sincerely;

Fahri

Fahri Karakas is the author of Self-making Studio.

You can explore more here.