Tell your story to an audience of one

The first audience to tell your story to is an audience of one - you.

Before you decide to share that story with others, start by telling it to yourself. Your story matters. It always has. Telling your stories to yourself helps you see yourself, and see the plots clearer. It helps you understand facts, fiction, reality and what meaning you decide to give each.

I’ve written before about how the stories we tell ourselves matter. The ones we believe about ourselves. Those stories influence how we relate with the world. Before that, they influence how we relate within ourselves.

Stories help us talk to ourselves. When we stop telling ourselves stories, we forget. Those stories die. Or worse, a narrow version flourishes because you refuse to tell yourself the other versions, over and again.

All stories are invented. We can as well invent stories that help us heal. Stories that lighten up our hearts. Stories that help us become who we want to become.

Two people may listen to the same story and interpret it differently. When the story is yours, you decide how you want to interpret it for yourself. And what you want that story to do with and for you.

Stories are after-the-fact. The same way you can tell yourself stories to understand yourself and the world, you can also tell yourself stories to misunderstand the world.

Storytelling is personal and communal. Most people ignore the personal in chase of the communal. Don’t be most people.

You are the most important audience for your story. Just by being alive, you are already telling the most important story you may ever tell - the story of your life. You may as well do it deliberately, and keenly listen.

Afterwards, you can decide which to share with others, and with whom to share.