Would you get up tomorrow and decide run a marathon?

You might decide you wanted to run a marathon, true. You might decide that you were going to start running this week and plan to build up to longer distances. You would probably reach out to your park run organisers and local groups. You would almost certainly ask those in the know how you should start and what equipment you should invest in.

You would NOT, however, dust off the trainers you’ve not worn in ten years, step out your front door and run twenty six miles.

Imagine how that conversation would go with a fitness coach…

“Hi! Let’s start with your fitness goals. What do you want to be able to do? Walk a mile? Walk up flights of stairs without getting breathless? Run 5k? …”

“I want to run a marathon.”

“OK, wow! Good on you. How long have you had marathon running as an ambition?”

“Years. I’ve always thought I’ve had a marathon in me. I’ve just never got around to starting.”

“And now you’re ready? Fantastic! Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll start with finding out what your fitness level is like and then work on building up your strength and stamina. If you look around the gym you’ll see there are different areas for different types of work – ”

“Oh, no, no! You don’t understand. I don’t want to do all those things.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“No, I don’t want to do those things. What I want to do is run a marathon.”

“Yee-ess. I understand that. What we are able to do here is train you from the place you’re at right now to a place of fitness and stamina that will mean you’re able to run that marathon.”

“Hmm, I see. But there must be another way of doing it. I mean, I’m not saying you don’t know your job or anything, but I learned how to put one foot in front of another when I was really young. Can’t you just show me how to do it – you know, how to get my breathing right and how to go at the right pace and all that – then I’ll just put my name down for the next marathon?”

“You’re kidding me, right? You know it doesn’t work like that, right?”

“Why not? That other gym, the one down the road, say they can do that. It’s on all their advertisements.”

“Is it?”

I have lost count of the number of people I’ve spoken to who have a novel or personal story in mind. They know exactly what it is about and feel they just need to ‘get it out’. I understand that feeling. Of course they want to produce the great work they feel so passionately about.

Then, all too often, I hear the words I dread. The words that mean the person in front of me with such a great story to tell simply isn’t ready to work with me. The words that mean they are going to have to go through the painful process of trying ‘quick fixes’ and falling for flattering words before they can see what’s actually going to work.

What they say is, “I just need someone to start me off and show me what bits to put where and I’ll be fine.”

I used to try to re-educate those people, to try to save them months or years of pain in which they try to write their story but still can’t get it to come out right. I wished they could have understood me when I told them about the need to learn to tell a story that is irresistible – it’s not just about getting the events of the story down on paper. The actual principles of doing that are not very complicated but they take training, just like running a marathon does. I have learned that they will just look at me with that, “Yeah, what do you know?” expression.

They often end up with their confidence crushed, convinced there must be something inferior about them because they can’t do it … it was supposed to be simple and straightforward, wasn’t it? It was just a case of ‘getting it out’. They’re not ready to hear the truth until they’ve learned from bitter experience, which makes me really sad. I wish there was more I could do about it. Horse to water, and all that.

These days I content myself with wishing them the best of luck and reassuring them that my door is open should they change their mind.

Do you get upset when people can’t see your story’s value? Especially when they say they’re interested in what you want to share with the world, but their actions don’t live up to this? They don’t read your blog (never mind share it), don’t come to your talks, don’t put their money where their mouths are.

I know, it is frustrating when that happens. It can even leave you feeling rejected, as if your story isn’t worth telling. I feel your pain. But I’m going to tell you where you’ve been going wrong so that you can start to fix it.

All Our Stories Have Value

It’s true – ALL our stories have value, intrinsically. Whether your story is about climbing an impossible mountain (literally or metaphorically), about your years in front of adolescent pupils, or about a boy wizard. Your stories come from within you. As such, they are valuable.

So why don’t others recognise the value of them? Why do you feel like nobody cares? This is the truth of the matter… all of us –including you – only care about the stories of other people when the parts of our brains which control empathy, imagination and emotion have been stimulated. In other words, we only give a flying fiddle about someone else’s story when we can imagine ourselves in that situation and facing the same challenges.

You might be thinking right now: “That isn’t the way I think. I always care about other people’s stories. I’m really interested in other people.”

I’m not denying that you have a normal degree of empathy in your psychology. That empathy has to be triggered, though. Unless you are an extreme empath, you do not engage with others’ experiences entirely by your own devices. That would be a very uncomfortable nature to have. How would you ever get any peace from other people’s pain?

What Those Storytellers Have Done…

Those storytellers who have triggered your empathy have done so in such a skilful way that you probably don’t even realised they did anything. That’s why you think it’s all down to your own empathy. What they have done is tell their story in such a way that they have made your brain experience it as if it is actually happening to YOU, not to them or their character. They’ve got into your head and made you feel as if you are there, with the problems and threats in the story facing YOU.

Your brain does not know the difference between the sights, sounds and smells in real life, and the sights, sounds and smells you are only hearing in a story. That sounds insane, I know, but it’s true. If a neuroscientist looked at scans of your brain in the two scenarios, there would be no marked difference in the bits that lit up.

How Do I Fix My Stories Then?

Our imaginations are linked to our senses. Learn to tell your stories by stimulating your audience’s senses. Once they can imagine it, they can begin to develop empathy. Once they have developed empathy, they will begin to care about what happens in the story. They will be captivated because, you see, they no longer feel that it is someone else’s story. It is now their story as well as your own.

Would you love to learn how to tell stories that captivate? Join The Storytellers’ Academy.

Curious? Want to discover more? Join the FREE group I’ve Got a Story to Tell.

Our own mortality weighs heavily on us humans. If only we could make ourselves immortal. Sound a bit heavy? Only because it’s true.

Picture those alchemists of old, hunched over bubbling potions, strange collections of ingredients lining the walls. See those scientists intent on their microbes in petri dishes and stem cells in… whatever receptacles stem cells are kept in. All of them focused on finding the way to extend life, perhaps forever.

Our human instinct towards survival is not only an instinctive concern with the survival of our species. It is a concern which each of us has with surviving as an individual for as long as possible.

How Long Can We Really Live?

Who knows what life expectancy in good health future generations may look forward to. Some scientists predict that in years to come it will be quite normal to receive your telegram from the Queen on your hundredth birthday. Happy days. And good news for the job security of admin staff at the Palace.

Sooner or later, though, the day must arrive for us all when we shuffle off our mortal coil (to quote the Bard). Go to meet our maker, push up the daisies, snuff it (to quote Monty Python – we all know the sketch!).

So Is That The End?

I’m not talking about an afterlife or reincarnation or being cryogenically preserved. That’s for other people to write about. I’m talking about living on in this world as yourself.

So, are you up for it? Want the secret?…

This is what you do…

Tell stories that captivate, that arouse the imagination and engage the emotions of other human beings.

Stories that captivate can change lives. Change the lives of others, and you can live on.

Would you love to learn how to tell stories that captivate? Join The Storytellers’ Academy.
Curious? Want to discover more? Join the FREE group I’ve Got a Story to Tell.

Think you don’t have the imagination to tell stories?

Yes, you DO!

First of all, let’s clarify what we mean when we talk about that phenomenon called ‘imagination’.

Imagination is the ability we humans have to conjure up pictures, sounds, smells, textures and tastes which are not actually there in front of us. That’s it.

It is a great mystery of life that our brains are biologically able to do this. When you think about it, it is pretty incredible that we can ‘see’ a familiar face without that person being in the room. It is amazing that we can ‘hear’ a song in our heads without it actually playing anywhere. But we ARE able to do it. When you do this, you are using your imagination.

Therefore, you definitely DO have the imagination to tell stories. Please… banish forever that false belief that some people have imagination and others are born without it. That is total codswallop.

I can’t make things up, though…

Firstly… so what?

Just like any other part of your body, the parts of your brain which control your imagination can be trained. You can start with imagining people and things you know well. Focus on recreating in your mind’s eye the colours, shapes and textures. Stretch and squash the shapes until you have them right. Imagine dripping drops of ink onto the picture until you have the right shade. Do the same with the sounds, altering them with a make-believe dial or buttons until the pitch, rhythm and quality is right.

When that becomes easier, move on to conjuring up things you’re less familiar with. This could be the time to add in other sensory details such as smells.

Once you’ve developed your skills in this way, you can turn your mind to creating a mental film of a city you’ve never been to in real life. You can even start creating images of things that don’t exist at all – the elements that make up the alien world in a science fiction story, let’s say.

Could you really write a book?

It seems that every other person these days has a book in them, whether it’s a book to tell their own story, a novel, or a book to complement their business. Do you recognise yourself in this?

How many of those people actually write their book? I don’t mean start writing it and leave off a thousand words in, or get an outline put together and do a bit of research about CreateSpace… I mean actually write an entire book. I don’t mean writing a first draft and then leaving it to gather dust in a drawer, either.

Elizabeth Gilbert (she’s the one who wrote Eat Pray Love) in her fabulous book Big Magic, which is about living a creative life, tells us about her idea for a book that got away. She started working on it, then for one reason and another she abandoned it. The idea left her and found someone else to write it. Someone else wrote the book instead of her.

Chances are, seeing as you’re reading this article, you’ve got an idea for a book. It could be a book you’ve been looking for but haven’t found anywhere. It could be a book which will motivate and help a particular group of people – people who really need to hear what you’ve got to say.

Here’s the thing. If you don’t write it, they’ll never hear it, unless they hear it from someone else. 

So why don’t YOU write it?

Excuse number one you might be making… “I don’t have time…” or “I’ll do it when I’ve got more time…” Let me ask you this: WHEN do you imagine you are going to have more time? When the kids are older? When they move out? When you win the lottery? When you’re in a residential home for the elderly?

How do you think those people who HAVE written books managed to do so, or at least when they were writing their first book? Few of us have a writing hut we can escape to for hours on end. What you do – what we ALL have to do – is fit your writing into the cracks in your life. That half hour when the kids are at their swimming lesson. That lunch break. That time between dinner and bed. If scrolling on social media is more important to you, carry on. If that soap opera is so vital, don’t let me stop you. Crack on. Someone else can write your book instead of you.

If you really want to write your book, you will. If you want to find excuses, you will. 

Excuse number two you might be making… “It’s too hard.” Writing a book IS hard – at least, writing a book worth reading is hard. There are various promotions out there which promise that you can be published thirty days from now. You could be, indeed. That doesn’t mean what you’ll have written will be any good.

It was Ernest Hemingway, apparently, who wrote, “The first draft of anything is sh*t.” In thirty days, you could possibly write a first draft of something. Or anything. Would you be happy with that as your legacy, though?

Writing a book is hard work. Some people call it practice. Effort. There’s no getting around it. Does that mean it’s too hard for you? It depends…

If you want to put in the work, you will. If you want to decide it’s too hard, you will.

Found this article useful? Try this one… https://bestbookyoucan.com/writing-business-book-know-start/

Planning on writing a business book?

You want to write a business book so that people will see you as the expert in your field? You want potential clients to be desperate to work with you? You want the book to sell or circulate in its thousands? …
What you need to do is keep those goals in mind every step of the way, isn’t it?
NO.
Frankly, a focus on those goals will lead to you writing a book which portrays you as a total ego-maniac. Nobody will want to read it, never mind act on it by seeking you out. I seriously doubt that even your nearest and dearest will be able to look you in the eye and tell you they’re impressed.
Think about it. How much time would you spend reading a book which is nothing more than an extremely wordy advert for its writer’s products or services?
Those goals are the benefits you want to achieve for yourself.
There is nothing wrong with wanting those benefits. You’re not a terrible person for having those ambitions.

‘But this is my story… Isn’t that valuable?’
We all have a story of some sort and yes, everyone’s story is valuable. Why do we find stories so interesting? Why are they so ingrained in our human natures? One word: emotion. When we read a story or watch a film, what we want is to feel what it is like to be that person and live that life. I am not sneering at stories in general nor at your personal story. Stories are wonderful expressions of ourselves.
But here’s the thing… when a person reads a novel, that emotional connection with the characters is primarily what he or she is seeking. His expectations do not go beyond that. He probably isn’t expecting to learn a lesson in his own life. When that same person reads a non-fiction book, especially a business or self-development book, a lesson he can take into his own life is exactly what he expects and wants. If he doesn’t get it, you’ve lost him.
Do share your story. Stories encourage readers to engage with your message. Stories are a key element of what makes us human. But… and I mean this kindly, as advice to save you wasted energies… make sure that when you sit down to plan, organise and write your book, you keep offering your readers value they can use in their own lives.

People crave help and advice
By putting aside your own goals for your book, then – sales of goods and services, book sales, enhanced professional reputation – and focusing instead on how you can use the book to help your readers, you will do a much better job of actually achieving your own goals. Try looking your own ambitions in the eye and they will run away and hide from you.