Create your story

Create Your Story: Dyslexic Individuals Have Great Stories To Tell

Dyslexic individuals can’t always get these wonderful stories from their heads onto paper. 

However, they have the images to create these stories in many shades and colours and add the emotions that we feel when we read them.

Many famous writers and storytellers are dyslexic. They are brilliant because of their dyslexia, their right-brain thinking, not despite their dyslexia.

There certainly was a lot of narrative around in 2020. What stories are you telling?

For some people 2020 was the worst year ever, for others it opened great new opportunities and they experienced abundance and a new positive outlook in life.

We all have challenges from time to time. We also experienced heart-warming acts of kindness, compassion and courage.

I believe that our greatest work of art is the story we tell about our life.

Now that  2020 has expired, what story are you telling about this year? 

Story for 2020

And if you don’t like that story, why not make up a new storyline for 2021? 

We are the creators of our perception and not only do we have much more creative power than we believe, we can also choose how we process the creation of others.

Tara Conklin said, “Your greatest work of art is the story you tell about yourself.”

We tell stories about what happens to and around us. We can choose which stories we keep telling ourselves and others, how we frame them and on which aspect we focus on.

Your story for 2021

“We tell ourselves stories in order to live”, said Joan Didion.

Good stories are our chance to collect better memories.

People are often hung up on the need to ‘tell the truth’. Yet every truth still stays true when told from a different angle.  When we tell the stories we want to remember and carry forward, we choose the angle that is either an inspiration or a lesson.

What would you like to remember about 2020? 

What have you learned in 2020?

What are you grateful for in 2020?

What are you grateful for in 2021, even though it hasn’t happened yet?

Maybe start writing a gratitude journal and put stories in there, stories you want to see and watch if things change.

Story for 2021

I once wrote a book called “90 Shades of Gratitude” which is exactly about that. Experiencing gratitude, joy and feeling these words that are expressed, as if life had already given you everything you have just expressed gratitude for.

Pre-emptive gratitude strategy.

I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, but what I do is create a story in my head about a slightly improved version of myself, like the upgrades they send me for my MYOB program, Version 2021.1 and I might get Version 2021.2 by March this year.

The first thing I’d like to improve is to focus within before I act or react.  That’s my personal upgrade, professionally  I’ll aim to add more stories about my own clients and stories experienced by others.

Here is a powerful one that a friend of mine told me:

Martha was visiting her son, his wife and her 16-month old grandson Ben.

While they enjoyed dinner, little Ben crawled over to her son’s guitar stand, pulled himself up and started banging on the strings. 

Instead of yelling “NO!”, as I probably would have, and rescuing the guitar from little Ben’s hands, his mum stayed calm and said only one word, “Gentle”. 

Ben stopped banging, looked at her and then very gently plucked the strings. His face lit up in wonder of the few lovely sounds the guitar made. By simply saying “Gentle” instead of “No!!!” his mum had not only empowered him and made him feel good, instead of bad, but helped him to appreciate music and respect the instrument. 

Now what story are you creating in 2021?

Will you start by learning how to get these beautiful stories out of your head and onto paper? 

Being dyslexic has always been a two-edged sword, powerful with the creative imagination, intuition and emotions – but also the struggle to express this, for some only in writing but for others both in speaking and writing. 

If you want to learn more on how to focus these big round pictures into lines on paper or a more linear expression, you might find a few tips and courses at The One Year School.

This year the program is streaming live courses and these are free for members. Check it out if you want to unleash that story genie and start expressing and creating.