Life without stories!

Have you ever wondered what our lives would be without having any stories? Just imagine how you would see this world without having any story to tell or listen to? In today’s digitally connected world, such wild thoughts are unimaginable. Isn’t it?

?Well, we all have some vivid childhood memories of listening and growing up to stories through our parents, grandparents or teachers, who gave us our early exposure to our curious minds to visualize this world through the lens of these tiny little stories. As a father of a 6-year-old, tradition continues at our home by reading stories or making up a new bedtime story.

Storytelling is a powerful art which is as ancient as human beings and culture. This has been in existence for 30,000 thousand years ago in the form of cave drawings, and so on, other forms of storytelling have emerged in this world. It is one of the key pillars to building a meaningful life, because stories at heart are all about having a purpose, a sense of belonging and making connections. Stories do let us see how others perceive and feel, as they evoke empathy with the people around us.

Our life experiences do take the form of our stories, but we always assume storytelling is an artistic form of expression by a set of experts or professionals. Every life has a story to tell, be it happy or sad. When was the last time you had any good or bad experience which you shared with your friends and family? Generally, human beings are natural story lovers. People read and watch fictional and non-fictional stories, which help them not only as entertainment but also form a new way of learning something in life. ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

According to one of the neuroscience professors from Princeton University, brain scans reveal how words in the story can shape up the brain activity in the listener’s mind. His research also suggests stories stimulate brain activity from the teller to the listener. There was one more experiment conducted by another professor, who divided a class of students into two groups. The first group was asked to read a text-based story by themselves and the other group was narrated the same story by the teacher. This experiment clearly stated that the latter group from whom the story was narrated had evoked higher brain activity scans than the former group. ?

World leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte (France, 1769-1821), Abraham Lincoln (USA, 1809-1865), Winston Churchill (UK, 1874-1965), Mahatma Gandhi (India, 1869-1948), Nelson Mandela (South Africa, 1918- 2013) to name a few have effectively used storytelling to educate, Influence and elicit emotions in people and how they delivered their stories had a power to change or start a movement to inspire lives. Some outstanding people do have the power to create a lasting impression on the audience by sharing their own stories about hardships, success, and failures. ?

Business leaders have been crafting powerful narratives for generations to convince their customers through purpose-driven stories, bringing out meaningful shareholder value stories and lastly, articulating the business vision and company values to attract and retain talent. Steve Jobs was one such business leader who was a great orator in crafting engaging narratives about his vision of building Apple Inc. for every stakeholder. Boardrooms have embraced new ways of working, with presentations being a passé now, and executives have also embraced the way of storytelling through paper.

In this connected world of 24x7, recent studies conducted by Microsoft show Gen Z’s have a shorter attention span by 8 seconds, which is 4 seconds less than the Millennials globally. One of the reasons short video platforms have boomed in the last few years is because of their effectiveness at conveying engaging stories in a shorter duration. According to a Goldman Sachs report, the global economy is expected to grow even more in coming years to $480Bn by 2027.????????

Life without stories is unimaginable, and it is here to stay for many centuries or till the last surviving human being. Storytelling formats have evolved over the years and in the future also newer formats will emerge to bring out life’s wonderful stories.?

Let there be stories to talk about it every day in our lives and bring them to life by crafting a powerful story of yourself.

What’s your story? I would love to hear about your early exposure to storytelling or share any powerful life story you would like to talk about.

Note:

• Views expressed are of my own and do not reflect that of my employer.

Source:

• Goldman Sachs Research April 2023
• Microsoft Canada Report - Attention Span 2015
• National Geographic Education - History of storytelling article