Daniel Kwik

Mining Your Life for Stories

Life is full of storyworthy moments. I've started to notice this when I started journaling - a practice that forces me to slow down and consider my life in slow motion. Writing or typing forces my brain to move at the speed of my fingers, and it calms me way down, allowing my body to catch up to my thoughts, allowing me to become more self aware. ([[Good storytelling is a product of good self-awareness]])

And when I do sit down to write, I notice that everyday moments that I would normally gloss over can turn out to be pretty formative experiences. One example is [[how an indecision about tea helped me reflect about my life path]]. I would never catch these moments otherwise. Furthermore, if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus like me, or maybe just consider yourself a spiritual person, this habit of contemplation may lead you to discover that [[there can be sacredness in dull, monotonous moments]].

Discovering these realizations are like mining for buried gems, it often feels like 'work' - it can be mentally strenuous, I often don't feel like doing it, and yet when i discover a new gem, I get to cherish it and keep it with me forever.

There are ways to make story mining easier though. In his book, Storyworthy, Matthew Dicks employs a habit he calls "Homework for Life". It's pretty simple - every day, he asks himself what story he had to tell if he were forced onstage, no matter how mundane his day seemed. After 6 years of this, he collected over 500 story-worthy moments.

I've come to thoroughly enjoy this process of story mining. I get to discover new things about myself all the time - and notice the fingerprints of God in my life ever more clearly.

Mining Your Life for Stories