Telling a story

I read this article and I was just thinking that it made a lot of sense. I thought how cool it would be to be a great story teller, to be able to captivate and enthrall listeners. I think being heard and understood is an awesome thing, but it only comes with good communication skills, and a knack for drama in the literary sense…

Over the years, I realized I’m an awful story teller!

It takes a lot of skill to capture the attention of people. Some are born with it, a natural charisma that is magnetic and attracts people. Others work for months and years, and even then not all gain the level of a virtuoso who can command attention by the sound of their voice.

There are many facets of story telling, with words being just one of them. It can be the tone, cadence, gestures, facial expressions, but it all comes together into something that either bores you, or sparks your interest and holds your attention.

The gist of it, the content, can sometimes be unimportant. Truly masterful communicators and story tellers can make their audience stand at rapt attention even if the subject matter is dry and uninteresting.

It’s all about how you connect people to what you are saying. The more connections you can establish in the audience’s mind, the more you they are willing to listen to you.

Story tellers are theatrical people. They perform on to an audience sometimes of only one person. Their communication embodies artistic aspects to express and send out messages that are consumable by the listener. Listeners enjoy it, being able to identify the ideas sent out by the story teller. They relish being open to new and sometimes even old ideas!

Often we have a huge idea or understanding in our heads. We know the concept instinctively, but it is the communicator that manages to share forth that idea in a clear and concise way! I’ve sat in presentations and even napkin drawing discussions where I came out realizing that it wasn’t something new that was shared, but the WAY it was shared was simple and revolutionary, and essentially brought to remembrance the concept that was being communicated much more clearly and effectively in my mind!

The good news, is that this can actually be learned. Articles like the one above give us a clear idea on how we can improve ourselves, but like all skills it takes practice, diligence and lots of trial and error. I’m hoping I can improve, even if just a little bit, my story telling and communicating skills each day. It’s going to be awesome for work, but it’s also important to me as a person. I’ve been striving for a lot of growth the past year, and this area is no exception!