Patrick Mosher shares a three-step method for telling your year as an uplifting story: pick one emotion you want people to feel, choose five or fewer highlights from your year, then weave them into a two-minute narrative around that feeling. He walks through his own examples, from launching a Titanic app to hiring a social-media firm, showing how even difficult moments can show resilience.
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As we enter the holiday season, someone inevitably will ask you the question, "How was your year?" For many, this has been a tough year. Endless pandemic stories, lockdowns, canceled vacations, turbocharged cabin fever. Now, you can respond to this question with all your trials and tribulations from the year. It'll feel good to let loose. And perhaps they'll feel the same and you can relate to each other's difficulties. But where do you both end up at the end of the story of your year? Turn it around 180 degrees. After you're finished telling this person the story of your year, how do you want them to feel? So here are 3 steps to build an engaging and positive story of your year for these holiday parties. Step 1: What one word describes how you want people to feel after you tell them the story of your year? Step 2: Journal all your highlights and lowlights from the year and boil them down to a list of 5 or less. And step 3: Now tell the story of your year, keeping the intent of your one word. Let me demonstrate. Step 1: How do I want people to feel? Optimistic. This is a tall order for this past year. Okay, step 2: Summarize highlights and lowlights to a list of 5 or less. If you're going to tell your story in 2 minutes or less, you can't flood the attention of your listener. So here's 5 highlights I could use to share optimism. 1, 26 sessions of a Wednesday night spirituality series. 2, launched a Titanic diagnostic app. Number 3, produced beautiful Delphi photo book. Number 4, submitted 2 chapters of my Wisdom Archetype book to a New York publicist. And number 5, hired a social media company. So step 3, the story of my year. Choose which highlights you want to include in the story of your year. Remember your word. Mine is optimism. So here goes. Patrick, how was your year? It's been a tough year. I left my 28-year consulting career in 2017 to start a movement of gathering ancient wisdom from sacred places all around the world and then sharing those wisdom stories at live events. That worked great, taking adventurous people to Machu Picchu, Peru, and Glendalough, Ireland in 2019. And then COVID-19 shut all that down. So what did I do in 2021? Doubled down on the movement, of course. I hired a social media company to build and boost my social media presence. It's been a, a slower than expected ramp up, But I'm hopeful. They know what they're doing. And I can— I continue to moderate my Wednesday night spirituality series. 15 to 20 participants join every week. Zero attrition since we started it in September of 2020. Our Wednesday nights are an oasis of emotional and spiritual freedom. Our spirituality series attracts people from across the country and even internationally. Would we have gotten this kind of participation if everyone was running around all over the place on Wednesday nights? Hmm, probably not. And I doubled down on my Titanic Diagnostic brand too. In 2021, my app developer finished building the Titanic Diagnostic app, launched in the Apple Store. I couldn't have finished that project if I were flying all over the place. The app will help me promote the Belfast Titanic diagnostic event in October of 2022. There's more, but the bottom line is this. I'm hopeful, optimistic of our humanity. Yes, things are hard. Divisive language is all around us. People are getting stuck and mad on important issues in the world. What do I see? The evolution of humanity. It's hard, it's rocky, and we're equipped to handle whatever is thrown at us, built right into our DNA. Just lean into your unique superpower, engage authentically, shine as you step towards your life mission every day. You, me, we can do it. Together. Let's build a better world for future generations. Well, so there's the story of my year. How do you feel?
