Story Categories
Ideas in any category can be and probably will be relevant in other categories, they are just ideas. The thing is, to try and pick a category your input will be most suited to.
1. P'Leisure
Pleasure and leisure. Activities that gave you joy, where you found euphoria, where you triumphed, possibly against great odds. Where you gained insight, found relief from the trials of life, from pain, from adversity. Where effort in equals results or not, where trying was everything and winning was a bonus or without winning what was the point? Where you stretched yourself or just enjoyed the ambiance, the company, the community, making a difference, friendship, camaraderie, taking part. The pleasure of a massage, a Sunday dinner with family, coffee/beer with a friend, a stroll along the seafront in the warm sun, or a hike up a mountain, the wind howling and the rain beating down, tinkering with the car, finishing the milking and walking back indoors to a cooked breakfast and a hot cuppa. Where you found the joy and exhilaration in your life. Art, music, dance, theater, sport. It could be a list:
- Lazing in on a Sunday morning – the smell of bacon wafting upstairs
- A hot bath with bubbles and essential oil
- Walking the dog on a frosty autumn day, orange and red leaves falling all around us
- These are your words of Wisdom you’re gifting to the world, as unique and individual as you are.
2. Spirit
These would be stories of how you came to recognise the value of living with passion, integrity, faith, hope and meaning. The way your faith has impacted and moulded who you became and what you did. It could have been something you intuitively knew or something you came to realise with retrospect – as you entered the 3rd age, or as the result of a happening. Living with passion, throwing back the curtains to get on with the day where you knew you were making a difference, doing what you loved, whether ‘work’ or play. Or did you have to drag yourself out of bed, day after day, to do the same old drudge and then one day…….
The same with integrity. Living an authentic life is so much easier than selling your soul and not being true to who you really are. How did you come across the value of integrity, in a flash of insight, through a trauma or falling under the weight of not being true to yourself. Living someone else’s dream. How hope kept you going, in the dark times when you felt you couldn’t go on or it would never turn out right. What words of inspiration were whispered into your ear in those dark moment, what was the glimmer of light that kept you going? A life with meaning is a life worth living. How did you find what gave meaning to your life, or did giving meaning to others give meaning to yours. Did you find the meaning of life – for you at least. What were the ‘aha’ moments in your life? When you finally got it, when something finally made sense, when the puzzle pieces fell into place. When the Universe came together to say to you – aha, this is it, this is what it’s all about. When you felt your spirit soar.
3. Warrior
Maybe you were a warrior. You fought for your country, your family, your friends, your liberty, your community, for good, for fairness, for justice, for love. What was the story, how did you come to be in that position, what did you see, how did you feel, what did you feel, the smells, the sounds, the emotions, what went through your mind, your thought pattern. What did you do? What did it teach you that you can teach others, what message can you pass on for the good of all, to save others from the suffering what you endured or to share in the euphoria you felt. The joy of success, the bitterness of failure and how you rose from the ashes, the extraordinary acts of sacrifice. What mattered, what still matters, was it worth it.
How has the heritage, history and culture you grew up in, grew into, moulded and shaped the person you have become? Were there particular stories that made a particular impression? Did you move to another area/country where the culture was different? How did you deal with this, did you change or did you make a difference in, or change, the culture around you? Did you change/make history? My mother was the first woman from her tiny Welsh town to go to university. What obstacles and prejudices did she have to overcome? Both from within the family and the wider community. Did she have to be strong and face the demons? She undoubtedly grew in confidence and ability. As her light was allowed to shine she became a beacon for other young women. A torch bearer encouraging other women to step out and take hold of their own destinies if they chose, and go on to change the course of history and the culture in their own families, towns, countries and even the world! Changing the world one step at a time. What step/s did you take?
4. Beauty & the Beasts
Your words of wisdom with regard to this wonderful blue planet and the beasts we share it with.
By beauty, I mean the majesty of Mother Nature in all her glory. How has nature impacted on your life? Maybe it’s where you feel at one with all that is, whether you’re patiently waiting it out in a hide, running a marathon or meditating on the top of a mountain? Maybe it’s been your route to success and a viable lifestyle and income, whether you took yourself off and wrote a book in a remote cabin or mined the valleys. Did you sit in awe watching a magnificent sunset over the Grand Canyon, Taj Mahal, the horizon or the hatching of a tiny bird? The value to you of sitting in the great outdoors with a group of friends around a camp fire, camping out in protest at the felling of great trees or the ripping up of wildlife habitats to facilitate another road or housing estate. The destruction of the ozone, our throw away habits floating around in massive giros in the great oceans of the world. Maybe you’re a natural activist or a passive observer. Maybe you travelled the world and saw many great and terrible sights. What impact did these events have in the unfolding of the person that is you? You may have insights on how to harness nature in a harmonious rather than destructive way, for all to benefit.
The animals in and around your life, from domestic to farm to those outside the backdoor, to the more exotic. What stories can you tell, what did you learn from them, the devotion, the excitement, the intelligence, the work they dutifully performed. You may be a vegetarian or a hunter, you may have worked with or trained animals, you may have a guide dog or enjoy the visits of a PAT dog. You may have tips or methods or ideas on teaching, rewarding, keeping animals. You may have learned the hard way, intuitively, found you have a gift of communication or healing animals. You might have been a vet or a butcher, the Mad Cat Lady or a Cavalry man (as was my Grandfather) in the first world war.
5. Y'Earning
Ooo this is a strange one, Yearning and Earning. Basically, these are your thoughts on work or how you earned an income. Did you always know what you wanted to do, go for it and work your passion. Maybe you yearned to be whatever it was you actually managed to do. Or maybe you worked a job while you yearned to be or do something else. Did you change, did you carry on where you were. Did there come a point where enough was enough – you’d had enough of facilitating someone else’s dream and now was the time to live yours. Did you quit and throw yourself into the new job/career/project or did you pick up your passion as a pastime and work it into a full time job/career. Did you act cautiously or throw caution to the wind, were you right. What did you learn, how did you grow, were you happy, did you feel fulfilled, a success. Did you change careers or stick with the same profession, changing companies only or did you wake up one morning and think ‘I’m going to be a fireman, writer, upholsterer, painter, artist, whatever’ and did you? Your thoughts about choosing a path to earning, following your passion or being practical – we all have bills to be paid and basic needs to be met. Or maybe you were an entrepreneur, working for yourself, guided by inspired action, yearning or drive. Did you build an empire, or did you fail? How many times did you pick yourself up and start over. What did you discover that you wished someone had told you before you started?
6. Life Skills
Recipes, diet, health & fitness.
Back in the day we all ate real food. We ate sensible portions at set times. We didn’t graze all day long and we exercised, whether it was doing the housework without all the modern gadgets or playing outside with the kids, doing sport, walking to school/work, or mowing the lawn – even standing up and stepping forward to change the TV channel!
Today many eat food like products which don’t contain much of anything recognisable as food. They sit in front of various screens, unconsciously eating far too much, living their lives vicariously. Oblivious to the outside world and real life going on around them dragging their bodies with them.
Let’s blaze a path back to good wholesome food and health. Send me your family secret recipe, the one that is always the winner – with a photo if you have one. A lady I know makes the most amazing oat cookies but refuses to give away the recipe! How sad is that, instead of being able to share the joy around she saves it for the privileged few – it’s like kids in the playground, it’s MY ball and you’re not playing with it!
Your experience of changing diet, incorporating a healthy lifestyle, or the results of ignoring advice – whether to your benefit or detrimental to your wellbeing, what were the consequences of your choices.
The value of health and fitness to you, both in the past and now. How have the choices you made in your earlier life impacted the now? Have you followed the conventional path or gone the alternative route? Do you have any strategies or techniques you could share?
7. Quotes/Music/Literature/Art
Things you’ve heard or read that have inspired. A line or paragraph from a book, a piece of poetry, the lyrics of a song, a piece of music. How did they inspire, what changed, how were you feeling before and after? It could even be a novel, a biography, help book, tv show or YouTube video, movie or Facebook post. (Credit to the source that inspired must be given.)
8. Relationship
Relationship covers all manner of relationships, from the traditional partner, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, child/ren, son, daughter, mother, father, uncle, aunt, cousin, grandmother, grandfather and on.
Friends, colleagues, team mates, mentors, fellow members of groups, other parents, teachers, service providers, coaches, leaders, community, society, the plant, nature.
Celebrity, tv & movie stars, musicians, sports stars, royalty, politicians, fictional characters, historic characters who have had an impact, words they’ve said, things they’ve done, ways they’ve lived, values and morals that have motivated or changed your perspective through wise/timely words or heroic action.
From what you’ve learned, from what you know, how would you guide others, with the insight you gained, what is your legacy. Tell me your story, so that they can say, “I’m so glad someone told me that!”
9. Quick Tips and Quips
For example; garden, house, home, wheels, diy, sports, sewing, crafts …..
That one line throw away comment that changed everything, the way to keep the smells away in the fridge or get the red wine out of the carpet, how to humanely rid the garden of snails, the ideal way to drive nails into decking, how to choose the ideal tennis racket for you ….
10. Legacy
Anything you wish someone had told you/shown you earlier!!! If only you’d known!
Your legacy is your gift to the world. What do you want your legacy to be? How do you want to be remembered? What have you done to ensure the legacy you leave is the one you wanted? What would you like people to say about you when you’re gone, what words would you want on your memorial stone to tell the world who you were? What you did with your dash! (1946-2015 – that dash!)
The movie The Shift, with Wayne Dyer, provided me with a big aha moment. In it he is discussing a book of short stories by Leo Tolstoy, who, Wayne says, was considered to be the soul of Russia. This book included a story called the Death of Ivan Illich, a judge who lived in Moscow, and pivotal to the story is his relationship to his wife. He hated his wife, despised his work and felt that she had pressed him into doing it as it was prestigious, he was filled with anger at what he had done. Lying on death bed, with his wife holding his hand, the woman he had despised all his life, he looked up into her eyes and said ‘what if my whole life has been wrong’. Wayne made a note to self ‘Don’t die with your song still in you’. Now I’m saying to you – don’t die with that wisdom still in you.
11. Other
What were the ‘aha’ moments in your life? When you finally got it; when something finally made sense; when the puzzle pieces fell into place.
Anything else. Anything you haven’t found a category for.
There could be a million categories. If enough come in to define other categories, these will be added. I felt 10 was good enough to start with.
If there isn’t a specific category you feel your story fits into that’s good because you don’t necessarily want to fit into a box anyway AND your story could be the exact story that changes everything!
Enjoy the process.
