What makes a great story? If you are not familiar with the Hero’s Journey I would recommend you familiarizing yourself with it. Once you learn how to tell a great story, you can inspire, influence, and motivate people to take action.

As we know, people buy stories, share stories, like stories, and remember stories. So as a leader, why wouldn’t you want to be a good storyteller? Here are three things that make a great story:

A challenge: The harder you have to work to obtain your goal, the better the story you will have.

A fight: The stronger the contrast you can create between the person, idea or thing your “hero” is up against, the better story you will have.

A feeling: The more opportunities you give your audience to feel happy, sad, fearful, disgusted, surprised and angry, the more connected your audience will be to your story.

Think about all the great stories you have ever heard, watched, or read. All incorporate these three things. Start looking for them. Consider the world’s great stories and how those stories made you feel, what fight the heroes were up against, and what they tried to accomplish!

So the next time you are faced with an everyday challenge, fight or experience major feelings, know you are creating a solid life story for yourself! As always…

Dream BIG,
Ryan