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The Power of Story

Page 30

by Jim Loehr


  What Matters Most (Smith)

  “What’s Your Story?” (Ibarra and Lineback)

  Wie, Michelle

  Winn, Denise

  Wizard of Oz, The (film)

  Woods, Earl

  Woods, Tiger

  work. See also corporate stories

  accountability about

  “Because I Can” syndrome

  breaks at

  energy crisis in

  extreme jobs

  faulty assumptions about

  friendships at

  happiness in

  rituals for

  story around

  workaholism

  Working Identity (Ibarra)

  WorldCom

  worry

  yoga

  Zimbardo, Philip

  Zinbarg, Richard

  About the Author

  DR. JIM LOEHR, Chairman, CEO and co-Founder of the Human Performance Institute, is a world-renowned performance psychologist, co-author of the bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, and pioneer in the growing field of Energy Management. He has worked with thousands of world-class performers from sport, business, medicine, and law enforcement, including Fortune 100 executives, FBI and Army Special Forces, and athletes such as Mark O’Meara, Michelle Wie, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, Eric Lindros, and Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen. Dr. Loehr’s work has been chronicled in the Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, and US News and World Report, among other publications. He has a master’s and a doctorate degree in psychology, and serves on numerous scientific boards.

  * Fortunately, many chief executives and other senior leaders who’ve come through our program, while understanding that it’s up to each individual participant to face the truth to improve his or her life, have realized that their companies or divisions must also do so. We’ve witnessed dozens of institutions make large-scale organizational change, enabling their story to be more easily aligned with the individual worker’s.

  * A longer list, compiled over years of gathering data from clients and including obvious subsets of these five categories:

  (1) Work/Job/Boss; (2) Family; (3) Health; (4) Happiness; (5) Friendships; (6) Money; (7) Self-Indulgence; (8) Fame/Power; (9) Death; (10) Sex/Intimacy; (11) Trust/Integrity; (12) Parents; (13) Religion; (14) Spirituality; (15) Love; (16) Food/Diet; (17) Exercise; (18) Children; (19) Spouse/Partner; (20) Other.

  * Andre Agassi, the fantastically talented and inspiring tennis player, had a brilliant early career; then seemed to lose some desire and focus and faltered to the point of career oblivion; then, after rededicating himself physically and mentally (and emotionally, and spiritually), returned for another brilliant run that lasted for several years. On the eve of his retirement, he said, “This is a close of a certain chapter of my life.”

  * This formulation is the brainchild of Agnes Hankiss, who first used it in her 1981 article, “Ontologies of the Self: On the Mythical Rearranging of One’s Life History.”

  * “Aligned” and “identical” are not the same. If one’s public and private voices are identical, then one treats both voices without regard for the special, necessarily singular role each plays; whenever convicted mass-murderer Charles Manson has been interviewed from prison, he spoke as if no boundary existed between his private voice and the public expression of that voice. If one’s public and private voices are aligned, then they support each other, each in their unique way, for one’s greater benefit. An example of this might be Lance Armstrong, whose outward expression of his internally voiced desires lead him to achieve his goals.

  * You won’t spike before working out because you’re about to consume an extraordinary number of calories; you won’t spike after working out because you have a glycemic debt and you’re ready to absorb carbs quickly.

  Table of Contents

  Praise

  Colophon

  Also by Jim Loehr

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Contents

  Introduction

  Part One: Old Stories

  Chapter 1: THAT’S YOUR STORY?

  Is Your Company Even Trying to Tell a Story?

  Presenteeism

  Old Stories

  Your Story Around Work

  Your Story Around Family

  Your Story Around Health

  Your Story Around Happiness

  Your Story Around Friends

  Write Your Current Story (or Try to)

  Chapter 2: THE PREMISE OF YOUR STORY, THE PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE

  The Words on Your Tombstone

  Your Ultimate Mission, Out Loud

  Outing False Purpose

  Purpose Is Never Forgettable

  Questioning the Premise

  Lining Up

  Flawed Alignment © Flawed Ending

  Chapter 3: HOW FAITHFUL A NARRATOR ARE YOU?

  Faulty Assumptions

  “Because I Can” Syndrome

  Cooking the Books

  The Four Scenarios

  Pessimists, Watch Out

  Optimists Should Watch Out, Too

  Chapter 4: IS IT REALLY YOUR STORY YOU’RE LIVING?

  Big Battle for a Little Voice

  Lessons in Storytelling 101: Communist China

  Everyday Indoctrinations

  Promises, Premises

  How Your Values and Beliefs Affect Your Storytelling

  Where Do Our Values and Beliefs Come From?

  The Dilemma of Flawed Values and Beliefs

  Your Crap Detector

  Chapter 5: THE PRIVATE VOICE

  When Stories Collide: The Two Voices of the Storyteller

  Voice Lessons: Ten Inner Voice Skills

  Chapter 6: THE THREE RULES OF STORYTELLING

  I Couldn’t Be Happier

  Rewriting: Turning Points

  The Three Rules of Storytelling

  Write Your New Story

  Part Two: New Stories

  Chapter 7: IT’S NOT ABOUT TIME

  What Mr. Rogers Teaches Us

  The Lie of Time

  A Different Kind of Energy Problem

  The Energy Pyramid

  From Stories Flows Energy

  Chapter 8: DO YOU HAVE THE RESOURCES TO LIVE YOUR BEST STORY?

  Our Physical State Influences the Stories We Tell

  Getting Your Story Straight About Eating

  Getting Your Story Straight About Exercise and Movement

  Getting Your Story Straight About Recovery (Rest and Sleep)

  Chapter 9: INDOCTRINATE YOURSELF

  Deep Diving

  From Subconscious to Conscious and Back Again

  Embedding

  Chapter 10: TURNING STORY INTO ACTION: TRAINING MISSION AND RITUALS

  The Training Effect, the Story Effect

  Ritualizing

  Chapter 11: MORE THAN MERE WORDS: FINISHING THE STORY, COMPLETING THE MISSION

  Accountability (About Work)

  Accountability (About Everything Else)

  Chapter 12: STORYBOARDING THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS IN EIGHT STEPS

  The Final Chapter: RAYMOND’S STORY

  Acknowledgments

  Endnotes

  Bibliography

  Index

  About the Author

 

 

 


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