Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time....  as a kid when you heard that phrase you KNEW that you were about to hear a great and exciting story. What makes a great and exciting story today? I'm not exactly sure, but I remember reading books ( or even watching movies ) and afterward I had take to a loooong pause just to wrap my head around how good it was.  I don't consider myself to be a great storyteller because I'm too excited to tell the ending lol. I'll rush through the main parts just to get to the ending.

Anyway, the reason why I'm thinking about the art of great story telling is because its almost essays season. If you guys didn't know, in May most schools release the essay topics on their application for the upcoming year. Meaning by May I need to have some ideas on how i'm going to tell my Academy Award winning story ( see the cornyness, I can't help it lol). 
Applications essays are like trying to tell an excellent story in 500 words or less. With B-schools being so competitive, I need to master how to touch someone through a story. Telling a good story is not only useful for writing essays but also useful when trying to motivate people. I'm sure at some point in my career I will need to motivate someone, so the earlier I can master this skill the better.

Thanks to the queen of blogs, Mads Mom, I stay looking at blogs :) .  While looking at a blog, I stumbled upon this book Tell to Win. I'm still reading the book( I'm only 3 chapters in) but it really good so far.  It talks about the importance of a stories and what a good story is composed of. So from time to time you can expect an update from me about interesting things I gathered from the book. Below are somethings from the first few chapters that seemed helpful.

How to build a story:

• Get your listeners attention with an unexpected challenge or questions
• Give your listeners an emotional experience by narrating the struggle to overcome that challenge or to find the answer to the opening question
• Galvanize your listeners response with an eye opening resolution that calls them to action

     "A story w/o structure leaves your purposed unfilled" . Make sure you tell a purposeful story!

Whats your story and can you deliver it in a notable way? My story to come .... one day

- Ms. HR