Not sure how to 'up' your storytelling prowess or just looking for some inspiration?

Well I've put together my top ten tips, well tips that seem important today anyway. I'm sure there will be more tomorrow. I just wish I could remember them myself sometimes.

Storytelling, as many will tell you, is not just a skill you can hone, it becomes a way of life, a way of looking at the world which is both endlessly fascinating and rewarding. The following ideas can embed themselves in your day to day life quite quickly, so watch out. Any I have missed out please feel free to comment and add.

1.        Allow everything you do or see to story you. Everyone you meet. Everything you do. Everywhere you go. Find a way to learn from them. Opportunities are endless. All you have to do is pay attention and observe .

2.        Become an expert at learning from your experiences.  ‘We learn not from our experiences but from intelligent reflection upon those experiences.’  Be sure you’re taking adequate time to extract the lessons and the story.

3.        Catch yourself growing. Achieving a level of awareness where you can monitor your own growth.  Spying on yourself, journal your progress,  soliciting regular feedback from people you trust.

4.        Qualifications are overrated. A PhD only means you know an awful lot about very little . You want to master something? Try DOING it. You want to master something?  Try INTERVIEWING people who’ve already done it. You want to master something? Try FAILING at it a few times first. You want to master something? Try PRACTICING it every single day. Do you really need to go back to school?

5.        Crystallise experience. Certain moments stand out. They change you forever. They take you to a place far, far away that you never quite return from. Your challenge is being able to look back – say, months or years later – and say, ‘Wow. So THAT’S why that happened to me…’ that is a truly powerful story.

6.        Everything is a story  source. The more unique experiences you have ... The more unique people you meet … The more unique things you see, watch, hear, read, taste … The more unique places you go ... the more unique you will become. In the words of Glen Phillips, ‘There is nothing that doesn’t matter. Every word is a seed that scatters. Everything matters.’ How many seeds did you scatter this month?

7.        No mistakes, only lessons. How long something stays a mistake depends on how quickly you begin to learn from it. There are no mistakes. Show me a mistake you made and I’ll show you TEN lessons you could learn form that mistake, thereby eliminating it as a mistake. Are you screwing up enough?

8.        Pay Attention. Simple as that. It makes your world grow bigger. It enables you see wider and fuller each day. Are you more concerned with the song the bird is singing or what type of bird is singing the song?

9.        Remember that every experience is a qualification. Use everything to your advantage. The more you’ve done, the more you can do. After all, the word ‘expert’ comes from the Latin experiri, which means, ‘experience.’ Have you left the house today?

10.  Experiment persistently, fail rapidly and learn to recognise that  failure quickly