The Seven Steps to StoryJacking™:
These StoryJacking™ steps can be used in order, or you may find yourself stepping into the StoryJacking process and bouncing around. Life isn’t linear and neither is self-awareness. Use these steps to get curious. They are the beginning or jumping off point, as you craft your story and rewrite your narrative.
Develop Awareness
There is a saying, “You don’t know, what you don’t know.” This saying is especially true for self-awareness. Finding ourselves in a metaphorical or actual rut is easy. If the rut is deep, we’re not able to see what is happening from any other perspective than our viewpoint. We notice problems and these problems are often the doorways into looking at what the deeper issues that are rumbling around below the waterline. Discomfort is key to self-awareness. What is it that you are wrestling with in your life? What would you like to see be different?
Get Curious about Your Stories
We are in relationships with other people, with ideas, and with the world around us. Your most important and longest relationship is with yourself. As you may expect, we also have relationships with our stories. Part of your personal growth is the awareness of the stories that lift you up or keep you stuck. Awareness can lead to curiosity about the stories that keep you circling the drain. Ask yourself, “What might open up for you by getting curious about the relationship you have with your stories?” And, just as importantly, “What is at risk if you don’t examine the stories keeping you stuck?”
Create a New Vision or Goal
We are all familiar with the idea of a goal. Goals give us a touchstone for the direction we want to move. If you are flying from Seattle to Boston, you may be off course any number of times along the journey. By having a destination, you can keep bringing yourself back onto the path. Life is the same. Having an intention that we put our attention on, will get us where we want to go. At the very least a goal gets you a whole lot closer to your destination. What is the dream or vision of your life that you want to manifest?
Gather Your Tools
The brilliance of coaching is that you are the expert on your life, and the coach is the expert in holding the container for exploration. You have been on this planet more than a few days, you know what aligns with your values, and you have a depth of wisdom and expertise about what you want. The coach can share tools, and encourage you to develop tools you already possess. The irony is, if all you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail. When you build your toolbox, you create more possible outcomes. Your tools support you to navigate the plot twists that inevitably pop up. What tools do you need to carry you forward into the future?
Be Courageous
No one knows what you are capable of accomplishing. You may not even know what is possible in your life. The exits that we take to sidestep feeling uncomfortable, to avoid pain, to prevent feeling uncertain, or to mask the fear that we are not enough, are always available. It takes profound courage to allow these feelings and push through the negative inner narrative, to keep fear near us and not take all the fearful nonsense to heart. In the words of Winston Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” What have you been avoiding and how would you feel if you pushed through to the other side?
A reader sharing their StoryJacking Journal.
Navigate the Plot Twists
Plot twists show up in every life. Those events, or people, or situations that pop up and demand that we shift our focus or even start over. Maybe you’ve been unexpectedly let go from your job, or your mother needs to move in with you. If you are working your courage muscle, working your self-awareness muscle, and developing your toolbox, you have everything that you need to be nimble at the moment. To handle life’s surprises in ways that turn the plot twist into something that continues to carry your forward.
Write a New Story
The only way you write a new ending for your story is by changing how you intersect with the world and shifting the meaning you give your stories. Exploring your insights, curiosity, and self-awareness opens you up to new directions in the story of your life. By developing your courage, you create the fortitude to muddle through the rough patches. Coaching gives you two people to support your new narrative until your new narrative is your “new normal.” How you think about yourself and others, how you show up in the world and the choices you make, all these pieces change the outcome of the story that is your life. Consequences can be positive as well as negative. What is at risk if you do nothing differently? What positive results are you ready to write into your life?
Ta-da! That’s it, StoryJacking™ in a Nutshell.
Oh, and Practice, Practice, Practice: Wash, Rinse, Repeat. That’s all there is to it!
Are you ready to Craft a Story Worth Living?
