Tell the Positive

Positive storytelling.

I learned this phrase at my first full-time job in my former career field. At the time, "positive storytelling" seemed like a great tool to use with a team that was struggling socially, a cue to encourage everyone to say nicer things about one another. I didn't see how it applied outside my office walls.

Fast forward five years, and although it's been a long time since I heard or thought about it, positive storytelling came to mind the other night at the grocery store.

I was fighting a cold, hungry for dinner, and wondering if I needed to be wearing warmer socks. But when the store clerk asked, "Do you get to go home after picking up these groceries?" I thought about the van outside in the parking lot-- my little secret home-- and smiled, responding with, "Yes, I do." Now, normally talking about home feels complicated because I don't have a traditional house.

In fact, it felt easier to blurt out something about my cold medicine or my cold toes.

Instead, I told the positive. And groceries in hand, I walked the 50 yards back to my home, feeling thankful to have it so close to me, and momentarily forgetting about my sore throat. I mean, everyone else in that parking lot had to drive just to get home! And in thinking that, I felt like the luckiest woman at the grocery store.

“Tell the positive and suddenly you’re thinking about the positive.

You’re living it.
You’re grateful for it.”

That's the magic of positive storytelling. It's not that it's the unreal, seemingly better version of your story. It's that in telling the version most aligned with your chosen direction, your forward momentum to get there becomes that much stronger. Tell the positive and suddenly you're thinking about the positive.

You're living it.
You're grateful for it.

This entry is adapted from a social media post via Instagram. All words are my own.