Welcome to the Training

Introduction

Story is one of the oldest and most powerful forms of communication.

As children we learn so much through stories: stories told to us by family members, fairy tales, movies, videos, heroes, stories from our faith group if that's part of our experience, and more. As children many of us were also good at making up stories as part of our play.

Somewhere along the road of life most of us get the messages that there are some stories that are better left not told, no one really want's to hear about our problems or struggles, that it's better not to talk too much about ourselves even for good things, and most of all that talking about things we've accomplished is boasting which is definitely not a good thing to do.

In this training you'll discover that often the greatest gifts you have to give to your family, your work or business, your faith, and your community have come from precisely the struggles and obstacles you've been through.

This training will help you learn

1. what to tell
2. how to tell it
3. and to do that in just 3 sentences.

Learning how to do this gave me so much clarity about the gifts I bring, the credibility I have and the direction and focus for where I'm going. This is what it can do for you too.

I'm so excited that you're giving yourself this opportunity and I look forward to what you will discover for yourself in the process.

Let's get started!

About Your Instructor, Kathleen Panning

The video shares my story. It's an example of what your story will be, only yours will be all about you.

Outline and Objectives

During this 5-day challenge you will:

• List the major challenges, obstacles or problems you've faced in your life
• Discover your quantifiable wins from the central challenge or obstacle
• Write the 3 sentences of your story
• Share your work in the Facebook group
• As a bonus, you'll have the opportunity to see if you can get your story down so you can tell it in 60 seconds or less

Day 1 Training

Often people ask, "Which story from my life do I tell?"

There are lots of episodes of various kinds in our lives. Often many of them are wonderful, happy times. We also face all kinds of problems, obstacles, challenges as we go through life. How do we know which one to start with? What about telling multiple episodes?

The problems, obstacles and challenges we face in life are the juiciest parts of life. They're where we learn the greatest lessons, about ourselves, others and life in general. Those are also the times that tend to be the most painful and what we or others label as ugly or "bad" times of life. Because of those labels and the pain we might feel we can be reluctant to share those stories from our life. But for our story to be real and not just a make-believe of good things, it has to contain not only the good, but also the bad and the ugly.

My story starts when I was told by a new senior pastor of the large congregation where I was one of the pastors on staff that I had a choice to make and my options were to either resign or be fired. For years, over a decade in fact, I avoided telling that part of the story. But I now realize that going through that experience connects me with thousands, even millions of people who have had a similar experience. Going through that and coming out on the other side has also made me stronger because I learned a lot about myself in that process.

Your first challenge is to make a list of all the problems, challenges and obstacles you've faced so far in your life. Then take a good look at that list and see if there are any issues that link two or more of those episodes in your life together. For me, believing I wasn't good enough is an issue that linked several parts of my life together. If you find such an issue, pick the situation that happened just before you started to solve that issue in your life. If you don't find such an issue, then pick the problem or challenge that you feel is the most pivotal in your life. That's where you start.

Day 1 Homework

Your first challenge is to make a list of all the problems, challenges and obstacles you've faced so far in your life.

Next, take a good look at that list and see if there are any issues that link two or more of those episodes in your life together. For me, believing I wasn't good enough is an issue that linked several parts of my life together.

If you find such an issue, pick the situation that happened just before you started to solve that issue in your life.

If you don't find such an issue, then pick the problem or challenge that you feel is the most pivotal in your life.

That's where you start.