For years, I had a gratitude practice. In my first years of marriage, I told my husband, Tom, each evening before going to sleep how happy I was that we were married, and how he made me happy.
Later, while working in a challenging, drama-filled workplace, I would pause every evening on the bus ride home, prompted at a specific location offering a beautiful view of the Empire State Building, and silently list all the things for which I was grateful.
It was an empowering and mood-altering exercise. Patterns did emerge, and I could focus on repeating those experiences. But my gratitude practice alone was not enough.
Tom, my clients, my friends, surprising and meaningful conversations with strangers, business success — I remain grateful for all these things (and I have recommitted to my nightly expressions of gratitude!). But without an exploration of how they occurred, I was failing to recognize deep patterns in my own behavior. And now that I was running my own business, reflecting upon and learning from these patterns was crucial.
As my expertise in story developed, and I understand how the elements of a story — protagonist, setting, action, conflict, resolution — combine to equal a whole greater than the sum of its parts, I turned to story as a tool for entrepreneurial reflection.
