The Power of Personal Narratives
“Stories are our primary tools of learning and teaching, the repositories of our lore and legends. They bring order into our confusing world”
– Edward Miller
Stories are the way we get to share important parts of our lives with others – and it is vital to helping build relationships with others. On a beautiful Saturday morning, we came together with some members of the Shenomics community to learn from our guest mentor at our Mentoring Circle on The Power of Personal Narratives. Tanya Bhattacharya, business storyteller and story coach at Storywallahs, took us through key elements of a story, and what each of us need to have in store, in our ‘story bank’.
What is a personal narrative (or story)?
But why the topic of personal narratives? As Tanya pointed out, storytelling is important because it is the primary way in which I get to tell my own story, and have others craft a story about who I am! As such, a story is a cumulation of
– What people see in me, in terms of my behaviours and actions,
– What they feel in my presence, and
– What people hear about me; not just from me, but from other sources as well.
Themes to build our stories on
The power behind anyone’s story is truth – the truth that is conveyed in the emotions, the situation or the incident, and the lessons we learnt from it. As Tanya shared, there are 5 common themes we can build our personal stories on.
- A difficult time in our lives, and how we overcame it: this includes the struggles and challenges we have faced in our lives. And this need not be a recent one – there were many stories shared in the group of challenges individuals had faced as children, and how they shaped the adult they are today. Another important aspect of this is that we do not always need to be the hero(ine) of our story – it could be stories of our parents, elders, or someone else who would have shaped who we are today.
- A deep moment that defined us: sharing deep moments make stories memorable, and this is an important element of any great story.
- A funny moment that changed our view of life: as Tanya shared, stories don’t always need to be serious. We can have transformational stories that are also hilarious to recall.
- Stories of failure: these are powerful stories as they always teach us something valuable – and lessons learned are key to a great story! It is important to always to do a self-check if we are ready to share these stories with the audience in question.
- An incident that transformed us to become better: these stories are great to share as they also help the listener understand the personal transformation we have gone through and what led to that change.
Structuring a great personal narrative
As Tanya shared, all great stories have 3 key parts to it – the inciting incident, the transformation and the lesson learnt. However, when narrating these stories, it helps to answer the following questions:
- What is at stake?
- Do I have a good opening line?
- Do I have a good closing line?
Each of us need to invest in building a collection of great personal narratives. These narratives become important for us at various stages in our lives – whether that is when giving a job interview, when speaking to someone we just met at a gathering, or when leading our teams at work. Storytelling is an important tool that helps us in numerous ways in our lives, and we are grateful to Tanya for sharing ways in which we can do this effectively!
