Five Simple Steps to Telling Your Story

Turning Your Life into A Guidebook for Future Generations

You want to leave a powerful legacy for future generations. And your story is a pivotal part of that. You’ve lived a life filled with ups and downs, victories and defeats, and maybe a few bumps and bruises. Along the way, you’ve gleaned some powerful life lessons and keys to success. And you want to share these lessons and insights with your children and your grandchildren.

Your story is significant. And it’s time you told your story.

But getting your story on paper, video, or audio recording can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? In this blog, I’ve created a step-by-step guide for how to identify which pieces of your story to communicate, no matter which form of media you use.

These five steps will help you communicate who you are, the stories you want to tell, and the wisdom you want to pass down to future generations. You may find you’d rather record your answers instead of writing them. However to be consistent, I’m creating this guide as if you’re writing, but ultimately it’s up to you. No matter what medium you choose, follow these steps in order to effectively tell your story.

Step One: Start With A “Snapshot”

Life is made up of small, but meaningful moments, or “snapshots” as we call them around here. In fact, we have a whole series of short stories called “Snapshots,” where we share meaningful moments from the lives of those who have come before us.

One of the best ways to recount your story is to think of your favorite stories to tell and your most meaningful memories. Was it the time you got to watch the sunrise in the Andes Mountains? Or when crazy Uncle Joe got drunk at your wedding and started singing karaoke during the reception? How about when you finally got up the nerve to ask out that girl from class whom you eventually married?

Think of the stories you already tell about your life. And write them down on paper or record them on an audio device. This will get your creative storytelling juices flowing and with each “snapshot,” you’ll have a piece of your story available to share.

For each of the following sections, we’re going to get more specific about your life. As you go through these steps, make it a point to identify the “snapshots” you most care about.

Step Two: Define Where You Came From

Our childhood experiences had a profound impact on who we became as adults. The neighborhood you grew up in, the school you attended, your family life, and the friends you hung out with…all of these shaped you.

Childhood stories are some of our most fun stories to tell and listen to. However, instead of trying to cover all the details of your childhood, pick a few “snapshots” to share. You can always add to this later and go deeper. Be sure to include a cringey middle school moment in your memories (we all had them).

Step Three: Identify Pivotal World Events and How they Affected You

For these next two sections, you’ll want to pull out a pen and paper. Make a bullet point list of significant world events that happened and then choose the “snapshots” you want to tell. World events affect us in profound ways and impact your story.

What was happening culturally during your lifetime and how did it affect you? For example, traveling before 9/11 is very different from traveling after the collapse of the Twin Towers. And no one will argue that the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t have a massive impact on the psyche of, well, the whole world. One day your kids and your kid’s kids will want to know what it was like living during Covid or the world pre-internet. Write down these events and some of the ways you, personally, experienced them.

Step Four: List Out Your Major Life Events

You’ve already done some of this, by sharing some of your favorite stories. But we’re going deeper into your story. What were some of the personal significant moments in your life? Moments where something shifted, you took a big step or made a powerful change. Again, you can make this a bullet point list and then focus on which moments you’d like to include a “snapshot” of.

Did you graduate from college? Fall in love? Start a new career? Get married? Go through a painful divorce? Lose a loved one? Experience a long-term dream come to fruition? What’s your faith journey? These events will be both positive and negative–the point is they affected you in an impactful way. Again, the bullet point list will be your best friend right now.

Step Five: Identify What You Learned Next to Each Event

Did the loss of a loved one teach you to value the little moments? Did your graduation show you that you’re capable of achieving hard things? Did a divorce cause you to go to counseling and realize you needed some better conflict resolution skills? The small moments, large world events, and significant personal events all taught you something.

Not every life event will have a lesson attached to it, but if you look closely, many will. Taking the time to reflect on these various moments in your life will help you glean the nuggets of wisdom you’ve gained on your life journey and how you can pass those on to future generations.

Here’s what a short version of this could look like:

Now, you have a life lesson to tag onto the end of your “snapshots.” While not every “snapshot” needs a lesson, including them will help you pass on your personal values to future generations.

These are five steps to telling your story and passing on your wisdom to those who’ve come after you. If you’d like to go even bigger picture, you can follow our bonus step, which will identify the MAIN takeaways you want to pass on to your kids.

Bonus Step: Identify Your Keys to Success

As you’ve gone about remembering moments from your past, significant and mundane, chances are that some themes will start emerging. You’ll uncover the moments that marked you and the decisions you made that changed your life.

And likely, you’ll have some primary keys to success that got you through. Maybe it’s the intentional connection piece that helped you make it to your 25th wedding anniversary and through COVID lockdowns. Or the courage you gained in leaving a toxic job and a toxic relationship. Whatever it is, these are the keys you want to share with your children and grandchildren.

Identify these MAIN keys from your life and you have a powerful gift to give the next generation.

It’s Time to Tell Your Story

These six steps will take the guesswork out of telling your story. This isn’t about perfectly crafted words or a beautifully refined film. It’s about sharing your story and your wisdom. This process will take time. After all, you have a lifetime of moments and lessons inside of you. But I guarantee you, it’s time well spent.

It’s time to capture the heart of who you are and the nuggets of truth, humor, and wisdom you want to pass on to those coming after you. You have a story to tell.

So go on, and tell it.