The Importance of Creating a Story Through Life
Today’s post is inspired by Colleen Wainwright’s (a.k.a. communicatrix) 21-Day Salutes™ and Chris Brogan’s blog post challenge on the importance of story in your life.
How do these two things come together?
The most obvious one is they both involve writing on your own blog; however, the real reason is both goals align perfectly for me. Let me explain. I was brainstorming ideas for a series to get in the daily habit of writing when I started reading Chris Brogan’s blog leading to the challenge.
The two fit perfect because earlier this month I told a good friend that I wanted to start using my personal site as a journal for a few reasons:
- Share with family later in life
- Review in the near future for personal growth
- A great start to an autobiography one day
- Why not, it is a great learning ground
- Gain more experience blogging
Where does the importance of creating a story fit in?
Your life is your story so the more meaningful things you do in life that bring you joy will create a better life story. This is important because those with a fun & fulfilling life story tend to be happy at the end of their life from my limited experience.
Everyone creates a story through life; but is yours worth hearing? Mine will be worth hearing although it may be worth hearing to some already. To make sure I apply creating a better story my first challenge starts today and focuses on how I can make my life a happier story for me. Some days that might just be reflecting on parts of the back story and adding the written record on these pages.
21 Ideas for creating a better life story
- Learn something new everyday
- Don’t miss anything
- Laugh at yourself, today
- Read a poem
- Write a poem
- Go for a walk
- Go camping
- Travel on a budget
- Play a game
- Invent a game
- Write 1,000 words about what you did
- Write 1,000 words about what you want to do
- Make a list & check it twice of things you want to do
- Make plans to do one of the things on your list above
- Eat something new
- Help a stranger
- Ask a stranger for help
- Give someone gas money
- Give someone a ride
- Be thankful for what you have
- Sacrifice a want for a need
There you have it, 21 ways to make your life story better which will in turn make you happier.
A few closing thoughts
If you know me then you know how much I love marketing and web analytics. I bring this up because there is the importance of telling a story in the marketing & analytics disciplines. Marketing is about telling a story that connects with your audience most effectively with a shared experience. Web analytics is data telling a story that takes a very talented storyteller to interpret and convey to others in a meaningful way.
I urge you to take up Chris Brogan’s challenge for a chance to win a copy of Donald Miller’s book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.