What’s Your Story?

Intro Music:
Welcome to An Owner’s Guide for Your Life, the podcast that combines psychology, coaching, common sense and fun. I’m Tracey Browning, an entrepreneur, life coach, and lover of people. Now let’s talk about how to live love, make money and change the world.

Tracey:
Hey, I’m glad you’re here. This is episode 24, and I’m going to talk about stories.

People love stories. It’s how we learn. It’s how we bond.
And I think we can all learn to tell better stories, even if we’re only telling stories to ourselves, because that’s what we’re doing when we remember things, when we reflect on our memories, we’re telling ourselves our own stories.

Right now, I’m reading a book called StoryWorthy. It’s written by a guy named Matthew Dicks, and it’s about the power of storytelling. How to write stories, but I think this part is more important, how to FIND the stories and how to remember the stories. That part is really important for me.

It’s really about noticing what’s happening in your life, what’s going on around you, noticing it and being able to remember it. Because so often we think it’s the big things that we want to remember in life. And of course we do. And they’re easy to remember- pregnancies and car wrecks and weddings and promotions, the big deal stuff. We think that’s what’s most important, and that’s what other people want to hear about.

But I really think it’s much more about the little things, things that might escape our attention if we’re not looking closely. It’s the little bits and pieces of our days that make up our life.

Now, in the book, Matthew gives this assignment that he calls Homework for Life, and he says, ask yourself every day, every day, if I had to tell a story from today, what would it be? And he recommends keeping a daily list with just simply a phrase, maybe a sentence, about your story of the day. And eventually you’ll have this compilation of just phrases and sentences that will jog your memory about things and you’ll start to see patterns, or you can just go back and reflect.

I think it’s a great idea, and I’ve started doing it now. Maybe you think, oh, but what if I’ve got a boring life and I’m just routine day after day, same old, same old. So nothing’s changed. But if you HAD to tell a story about something from today, what would make this day different from all the other days?

When you start to look through that filter, it’s really interesting what you come up with.

My entry yesterday, it just says flapjacks. That’s all I wrote– flapjacks. But here’s the story behind flapjacks.

My mother-in-law passed away six years ago, and I still have part of a plant, I don’t even know its official name. I don’t know what kind of plant it is, but I’ve still got a part of it that someone sent to her funeral. And I have nurtured this plant for six years. It had gotten pretty big, and something happened, I’m not sure what, but all of it died, except for, like, this four inch tall sprout with two leaves that grew off the bigger plant. And the rest of the plant died last spring. But I’ve still got this four inch tall sprout and another sprout off of it. I’ve got these two little stems left, and I’m really worried about them. They’re not looking good.

Now couple this with the fact that my father-in-law passed away six weeks ago and maybe you’ll understand why I’m a little bit sensitive about the possibility of losing this plant. I love plants, and I’ve got them all around me. And this plant connects me to someone I cared about. It’s the plant from the woman who raised the man I love. And I’m just really pulling for this plant to make it.

Now a few days ago, my husband and I were looking through my in-law’s garage because we’re cleaning things out now. And I found a small strawberry pot that belongs to my mother-in-law. A strawberry pot is like this terracotta planter that’s got little openings around the side where you can plant little plants sticking out the side. It’s really cool. And I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. So I brought it home, and I’ve got these tiny little succulents planted in the sides. It’s really cute, but in the top, it’s got a regular opening for a regular sized plant.

I’ve got this big succulent whose name is Flapjacks. This succulent- I didn’t name it Flapjacks. That’s the name of it. I want to say brand name but t’s not the brand name. It’s the variety name. I guess it is, but it’s named Flapjacks because it’s got these wide, flat leaves that look like pancakes. So now this strawberry pot with Flapjacks lives beside my desk.

And every time I walk into my office, I just laugh, because how could you not laugh, walking in seeing a plant named Flapjacks? And I feel so much better because I have another connection.

I’ve got my mother in law’s strawberry pot and a plant named Flapjacks that brings me joy every time I see it.

So what’s your story for today? What can you notice about your life today? A big thing, a little thing, a medium sized thing. What makes this day different from all the other days? What’s your story for your day?

For a transcript of this episode or for more information about life and mindset coaching, visit my website https://www.tbrowning.com/.