We’re all doing it already… on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… little snippets of our lives, a great photo or catchy meme. There is more, however, to your story than 140, or even 280, characters, including spaces, can convey. Social media is a great way to engage the outside world to discover your story, but so much meaning and value in storytelling exists in a context, and that is hard to deliver one post at a time.
Now, how many of your “friends” actually know your story? Not the story of you they infer from your social media profile… the real one, with all the context and perspective, and maybe even a few disappointments and failures thrown in? How about your family? How many times has your mother commented I don’t think I ever heard that story?
We all have our different tribes – family, work, church, school, hometown, besties, PTA, kid’s friend’s parents, et cetera, et cetera, and they do occasionally overlap and share short stories about you with a knowing smile. They are our tribes because of at least one commonality… you, and sometimes there are shared goals and perspectives, but what if you could expand your commonality, your tribe, exponentially?
When we share our story, writ large, through memoir or book, podcast or interview, presentation, speech or performance, we broaden the reach of our commonality as our broader audience discovers similarities to their own experience. As the audience that finds commonality with your story expands, you are actually building community. As more and more members of a community share their story, the more disparate communities find commonality and coalesce.
When communities find commonality and coalesce, amazing transformation can occur, and this is what humanity needs more of. So, are you ready to share your story?