I found myself in a funny situation the other day and I’d be curious to know if this has ever happened to you.
I was at the gas station trying to fill up my car from the pump. For some reason, the machine wouldn’t take my card.
I tried everything. I slid it in slow and pulled it out fast, then tried sliding it in fast and pulling it out slow (if that sounds like a sexual innuendo, that’s on you!)
Eventually, I got the message back that my card wasn’t accepted and I’d have to pay inside.
Frustrated by the inconvenience, I looked towards the door to see if there would be a line inside. As I did this, I noticed another man walk up and cough into his hands before putting on his mask and pulling open the door. (I’m writing this in the times of COVID)
It might sound silly, but it was all just more energy than I cared to put into filling up my gas tank at that moment, so I just screwed the cap back in and left. (But not before pulling the sanitizer out of the center console and giving my hands a thorough once over. Again, because COVID…)
Has something like this ever happened to you? Have you ever caught yourself getting persuaded away from an easy chore by the slightest obstacle? I imagine it happens to most of us quite a bit.
But here is where I must confess. The story of the gas station was a bit of a ruse because here is my real question… Did my story paint a picture?
As you read these words, did you catch yourself imagining a gas station in your head? Did you relive your own experiences with trying to get a terminal to accept your card when it wasn’t for whatever reason? Did you imagine the man that coughed into his hands before putting his germy mitts on the door handle and pulling it open?
You probably did. Most of us do. Therein lies one of the strange magical aspects of storytelling. It paints a picture for us. When we hear stories, we imagine the scenes in our heads.
While this might not sound so profound on the outset, think about it for a moment. My silly little blog post turned into a movie INSIDE YOUR HEAD!
Stories have the ability to create these images. Sharing your own thoughts, ideas, and experiences in the form of a story can have the same effect on your audience too.
You may have even caught yourself empathizing with my story, and immediately taking yourself to a time that something similar happened to you.
Again, we take it for granted because this is such an intrinsic aspect of being human, but take a step back and think about it for a moment. Empathy is a powerful emotion, and being able to elicite it with a story you share can be powerful stuff.
And while this is a great tool for us to use in our own communication, it’s also something to be cognizant of in how we are communicated too as well. We can all be suceptible to stories that are shared to us via the news, TV, social media, and advertisements.
A good ad will cause us to picture ourselves in the shoes of the protagonist and feel that the product being sold will solve our problems the same way it does for the person in the commercial.
It could be true and helpful, or it could be deceitful and dishonest. Being able to catch ourselves when we have these expereiences is an important aspect of being human in the 21st century.
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Storytelling is a fasciniating aspect of how we perceive the world and exist as humans. If you’d like to learn more, down load the Storytelling Primer below and start learning more about storytelling today.