One of my favourite things to do is listen to Podcasts — one of which is This American Life by Ira Glass. If you haven’t heard of it or listened to it, I say give it a go. As far as storytelling goes, this one is absolute gold. Every week they put together a theme and then put together different stories based on that theme. The stories are about ordinary Americans — ergo the title “This American Life”. A treasure trove of people telling their stories.
On the surface, I suppose storytelling can seem like a trivial exercise but, there is tremendous value in telling stories. Think of the stories passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth.
Stories excite our imaginations and help us think of new possibilities, whole new worlds. I find stories about ordinary people I meet in real life the most inspiring. The thought — if they can do it — I can do it too comes to mind!
Stories are a part of ancient cultural tradition serving several such as education and entertainment. I have fond childhood memories of sitting around a fire with my grandfather telling us stories, or as we call them in Shona “Ngano” (Fables). Firstly, it was a great way to spend quality time we spent with family members and secondly each of these stories is supposed to teach some sort of moral. A famous fable is one of the Tortoise and the Hare — the lesson being slow and steady wins the race.
Think of the bedtime stories we read to our young children every night, they play a huge role in childhood development, both mentally and emotionally. In a learning environment stories are a way to teach students, either at the elementary level or university. According to the organisational psychologist, Peg Neuhauser, a lesson taught in a story is more memorable for longer than learning from facts and figures.
Stories are told in so many ways: movies, poems, books, podcasts and dance. The entire movie industry is based on stories. Come to think of it, the world would be a pretty boring place if we all decided to keep our stories to ourselves.
I guess the main aim of this article is just to encourage everyone to share their story, every story is unique and connects with someone else who will hopefully be inspired or encouraged to take the next step.
“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world” — Robert McKee
