WHAT MATTERS MOST
Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020
When we tell story…
We can get really wound up in strategy, plans, organization – we can build charts and graphs, we can analyze time-motion and cost-benefit ~ but in the end, those elements might convince someone intellectually. Still, they won’t move anyone to action, won’t touch emotional buttons, won’t etch ideas on memories, or plant seeds in fertile minds.
I did a presentation the other day – my tools were eye contact, a blank notepad – my audience was just one person. My goal, to explain a concept and tell a story of my vision of an ambitious, nearly impossible idea. In the end, my notepad was full of ideas and things to explore, people to follow up with, but the seed was planted, the memory etched, and a commitment to action came.
Why?
Because of the story. Actually, one particular compelling story within the story.
So many times, we skip right over those magic bits and focus too much on our passionate pitch to sell our products, services, and ideas.
This lesson – once learned, and re-learned many times, is that story matters most of all. Of course details matter, need and purpose matter, and outcomes matter, yet no matter how passionate we might be about things we care about, nobody else cares until we engage them, connect with them, and engage their mind to address our in-depth definition of the complex problem and convince them to be part of its solution.
That, requires a connection/hook/some element of emotional connection, the buy-in, and the reminder resonates once again, the great big hard to achieve ideas aren’t so hard to sell if the picture is painted properly, the ground prepared, and the seed inserted at the correct depth.
It wasn’t just a significant first step with someone who is a great ally, but it was a self-affirmation of a goal and its achievability. And so much of that is going to rub off on everything I am doing.
Reader feedback:
Hi Mark, Happy New year! Glad to hear you have ‘saddled up the horse’ and chosen a direction. I am fully empathic with your need to grieve last year’s deaths. Meaningful relationships are nestled into our hearts. No wonder our hearts hurt so much when death takes them from us. We are just not the same, somehow. I miss Gusta and I didn’t see her even once! I guess it is the feeling conjured up of her through your relationship words. Your musings make you look deeply into what makes life meaningful to you and the opposite too, so you can adjust. I admire the willingness of that, SF, Lethbridge, AB
I can’t read your message today because I am so busy organizing to toss stuff every day for the rest of 2020, AN, Calgary, AB
Love this Mark - so true as I am entering the “purge” mode for 2020. All the best, MK, Calgary, AB
Love it, AG, Cancun, Mex
Loved it, RH, Calgary, AB
|
|
|
