Chapter 1
Who I am
You are your own story. The way you live your life is exactly the way you chose to tell your own story. You can choose to tell your story in different ways, with different tools, and from different platforms.
Storytelling is an art of inspiration, influence, and persuasion. When you tell your story, you should not just be entertaining others, like in live shows, magazines, through video games or movies. There must be a purpose besides just entertainment.
There has to be a motive. Your motive behind your story is what will make the story worth listening to. When you tell your story, you are obviously communicating with your audience.
And sometimes, you may not get an instant reply, like, a verbal or written communication. The response may come through how the readers now implement what they have read in their own everyday lives.
Storytelling is an elemental, foundational, and primary form of communication, and without it, there will be no way to convey messages to the younger generation.
Without it, there will also be no way to train even the adults at a professional level. Without storytelling, one may also not be able to sell one’s ideas or intellectual properties or any memorable information that is worth sharing.
There is no doubt about it, storytelling can definitely be used as a platform to entertain others, from a thriller book to get you off your chair on a cold and rainy day, to a late-night family movie, or even a God-inspired book that teaches you how to build, fight and conquer.
Personally, I used to think that your story will continue to live as long as you lived and that the day you truly die or chose to die while living will be the day that your story actually dies, but not really.
I have come to realize that the stories of some great men and women like Nelson Mandela and Pamela Lyndon "P.L." Travers, for instance, are still being told and celebrated each year because of how their stories have impacted the lives of others. How you live your life today will tell a story about you tomorrow.
Storytelling has gone beyond just entertainment, business, and professionalism. If storytelling is that important, then everyone should learn not only how to tell a story but how to tell it well and how to convey it.
There are different types of storytelling, but the one which I personally feel is most important to me is the “Who I Am story”.
This kind of story basically tells about someone’s life experiences, it also tells a lot about who that person is. This kind of storytelling is real and classified as a creative nonfiction kind of story.
Storytelling is not all about the end, or the beginning but more about the body of the story, the curves, the turns, the climbs, or the steps before the end. That body part is exactly what makes the story unique on its own.
The world we live in judges by looks and people often read the wrong stories from others. This is why it is important to tell your own story if you are gifted and privileged to do so, because, nobody tells a story better than the person that actually lived it.
There is no one without a story to tell, there is always a story to tell in this present age, everywhere, and in every society.
Storytelling originated from the day the earth was created, it began from the very history of mankind when God created Adam and Eve, and as long as this world is full of the living, there will always be a story to tell. Storytelling is diverse, transhistorical, and can be multicultural in nature.
Where to begin
To begin with your “Who Am I” story, you need to be able to define who you are, you also must be able to answer a question with your story.
For instance, I realized over time that, it was my lack of spiritual identity that prevented me from being the leader that I was born to be.
Each time I tried to climb my leadership ladder, something kept drawing me all the way down until I became spiritually nurtured by God's living word.
And as soon as I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ and began to acknowledge my creator, things started to become clearer to me. So, I decided to share how important being spiritually grounded in the word of God is.
People have different experiences and may choose to tell entirely different stories. If you are going to tell a story and you do not know how to begin, you may consider focusing on one of your personalities.
You may have received a comment or two on how you were at some particular time. For instance, I have in the past received comments like “you are an excellent communicator and a leader” and when I took a good look at myself again, there was no lie about it.
You too might decide to tell a story about a particular comment and a particular event that gave birth to such beautiful comments.
If you cannot think of anything, begin to brainstorm or go into reminiscence, you may also go through your old albums, your personal and professional journals, or even some of your favorite things like songs or food. Some of these things may bring memories that you can tell your story about.
People can certainly identify what a genuine story looks like when they read one, so be true to yourself. It doesn’t really have to be extravagant or vivacious, all you have to write is a simple and heartfelt story, simple enough to want to read more. Remember that integrity cannot be faked.
© 2021 Titilope Iyowu