Are You a Victim in Your Own Life Story ? Better Rethink What You Know About Storytelling

I've been receiving a lot of well intentioned "advice", "tips", and links to videos about how to become a better speaker, how to be more entertaining, how to captivate an audience, etc.

As much as I appreciate the enthusiasm I find myself wondering why there are so many videos and tips out there to become better speakers and ways to make your audience like you - but virtually no information on the importance of storytelling when it comes to being genuine, authentic, and utilizing language and meaning as a way to heal ourselves and make better decisions - which to me is the real purpose and meaning of "storytelling".

Put simply - storytelling is not a performance. It is not an act meant to sway an audience. Storytelling is a natural, biological, neurological function that human beings perform on a daily basis in every moment of their lives. Storytelling is happening right now as you read these words and you think to yourself "Man, this Joe guy really has a burr up his ass about storytelling".

So everyone - you ARE storytellers all the time - there are always stories running around in your own head in which something that "sounds like" your own voice tells you what you feel, how you think, and what you should do about your situation. But the question here is - are you actively aware of the story you are setting yourself up for? Are you the one creating the likely sequence of events that will unfold in your life through the thoughts, words, and deeds you follow?

We seem to have convinced ourselves that we are the victims in our own self narratives and yet when asked to question our own beliefs through the stories we have been telling ourselves, we think that being a 'good storyteller' means being able to convince and hold the attention of an audience through performing acts of fiction. Maybe the storyteller in our own heads is doing a better job than we think.