jamie pate: How To Tell Your Story Better

tell your story

Currently I am reading Bob Goff's Undistracted. For like the third time. Probably because I was distracted the first two times I read it.

There are a couple of things I do when I read a book of this nature. One is that I take notes. More on that in a moment.

The second thing I do... (and none of this is odd and unusual by any means, but I will get to my point in a moment)...the second thing I do is highlight passages or quotes that strike me at the moment.

Then...if/when I read it a second time I highlight in a different color.

So why am I telling you this. Because there are certain ideas that I come across in my readings that catch my attention again and maybe even mean more so the second time around.

And that is the point of this post. He takes some time to unpack Writing Notes. The author is an avid note taker. He talks about that early in the book. Any time I run across his thoughts on story, or writing it down, or note taking, I pay attention. Honestly, his encouragment has caused me to be a better note taker, which I do hope in time will make me a better story teller.

I mentioned recently in an Instagram post, there is more life lived than time to write of the life lived. But then again, if we allow ourselves to be distracted by trivial things, then yeah, that's even harder. (I'm talking to you, Jamie)

Since there is so much life to be lived. And since we as story tellers are very interested in telling our stories, there has to be a better way to capture those moments so we do not forget.

Take Notes.

So here is a question:

Do you take time at the end of the day? Do you jot down lessons learned? Quotes heard? Funny family antics? Thoughts on that flower you took a photo of? Do you take notes of the book you are reading?

If we fail to write down the thoughts of the day, they will escape us. And here's the thing:

"If you don't take the time to capture and process your interior world, you will miss the opportunity to discover something bigger and more beautiful in your heart." B Goff

That is the whole crux of what I am trying to say here. If we don't write it down we forget. If we don't take time to process our world, then it is just a vapor. It will have no meaning or impact. If we don't 'stop the blur' (as my Memory Planner friends are so aware of), then we miss the opportunity and miss the something bigger.

Listen, life is hard enough as it is, am I right? It doesn't take much to let the negative and all the noise get to us. That can happen naturally. It takes an effort, an intention, to take the life we walk, and find the purpose and the beauty that is to be had. Taking the time to write notes on the daily, to cultivate the life we live will also make us even better story tellers. And that's my biggest hope for you, is that you will continue to strive to tell your story.

***Supplies as seen in these images

edited to add: many items are no longer available