Let one hour a week surge the meaningfulness felt in your life. Start your story work now.
What are Tiny Stories?
In short, tiny stories are the many, many experiences—from moments to the micro-stories within your big stories—of your life.
My tiny story list has things like this on it:
- Papa Stan’s fruit roll ups
- young Marie in the apple trees
- Levi after the Myrtle Beach trip
See how they’re like fragments of stories? As a reader, you have no idea what those 3 things mean, but I can tell you a full-blown story about each thing.
Sounds a lot like a memory, doesn’t it? It’s not that simple.
Dictionary.com defines a memory as:
a memory:
the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences.
Your tiny stories embody a memory, whether past or living, but this is not about the act of remembrance.
Just remembering is a missed opportunity…
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Instead, use your tiny stories as ingredients for a meaningful recipe in your life or, even, your brand.
So you see, your tiny stories are many wonderful things…
– Tiny stories are guides.
– Tiny stories are insight.
– Tiny stories are opportunities for rich connection.
– Tiny stories are the bud of new, meaningful experiences.
– Tiny stories even make you memorable to your brand audience.
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Where do you find Tiny Stories?
– Tiny stories are all around you. They’re in you.
– If you categorized your life, you’l find tiny stories in every area.
– They’re from the past, the present, and some already exist for your future.
– They’re in the joy of your days.
– They’re in your worries & in your hard.
– They’re in your dreams & desires.
– They’re hidden in the cloud of things forgotten, overlooked, and dismissed.
– Your tiny stories are right under your nose… you just have to slow down, take notice, and respond well.
– I can help you start your Tiny Story List today…
Dangerously Good Storytellers have access to a whole host of recorded, guided “Story Unearthings.” Get access to those here.
Or, you can do this Tiny Story Power Hour—my free, 1-hour video workshop—to get a mini version of this. Sign up to do that here.
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What are Tiny Stories about?
In short: Everything.
Your tiny stories are about you.
They’re about your people.
Your love, your children, your parents, grandparents, siblings, your friendships, neighbors, community, your mentors, and your customers or clients. They’re the people of today and of the strangers you used to know.
Sometimes, they’re even about actual total strangers.
They’re about how you see these people and about the impact they’ve had on your life.
Your tiny stories are about meaningful places.
Your home. Your home away from home. Past homes. Your BFF’s home, growing up, where you used to spend so much of your time. Where you’ve learned. Where you’ve let your guard down. Where your heart was broken. Where you’ve explored your passions.
They’re about the places that molded, unfolded, and shaped who you are today.
Your tiny stories are about all seasons of life.
They’re of familiar, predictable traditions and also of foreign, unexpected newness.
They’re of firsts and lasts, hellos and goodbyes, births and deaths and everything in between—celebrated and mundane.
They’re about what lights you up and also about the darkness you’ve endured.
Some tiny stories are unfinished.
Some tiny stories have ended. Sometimes they ended in good timing; sometimes they ended too soon.
Sometimes tiny stories feel like nostalgia and warmth.
Sometimes they feel like fear and anguish.
Sometimes they feel like ah-ha moments and new perspective.
Those tiny stories of yours are a mixed-media, colorful masterpiece of art that’s yours only.
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Ok, Marie, but what’s so great about my stories?
In a society that breeds productivity addiction, FOMO, scarcity, and never feeling “enough,” it’s easy to operate on autopilot.
You’re working hard to:
– to solve all the attention demanding life-y things – they pop up like whack-a-mole don’t they?
This kid needs more lunch money in their account, you need to make that doctor’s appointment, your partner wants more time with you, don’t forget to call your dear friend Jenn…
and OH…
getting in those advice-list items from yesterday’s email are mocking you like mean little fairy trolls—🎶 “ha ha ha ha ha ha good luck trying to squeeze me into your busy life!” 🎶
– to make the right decisions for your problems that feel big and new and uncertain.
– to, on top of everything else—perhaps in spite of everything else—achieve all you want out of life for yourself & your family.
The noise is loud, so at this point, you just march on.
The noise seems quieter when you stay in motion for some reason, hey?
You keep going and doing and going and doing with a splash of self-care for good measure.
“I just need to get this finished.”
Believe me, I’ve been here. I still get here at times. We’re human!
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It’s a problem when marching onward becomes autopilot with a false sense of intentionality.
Sneaky, heavy fog forms on the path back to what grounds and aligns you—giving the illusion that you don’t need those things right now.
You’ve got later. You’ve got tomorrow.
Your heart knows better and signals “enough!” to you, but without that path, you trade being a student of yourself for superficial fixes that perpetuate a dangerous loop.
Because meanwhile, your fleeting story opportunities are happening NOW.
You miss them.
You miss them when intentional living means:
You’re head down, doing the work—day after day—until you hit your energetic wall. Time to reclaim yourself. You binge mindset work + being present and immerse in white space (or Netflix?). Once regrouped, you begin again on this perpetual, infinite loop. ♾
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The only exit is to deliberately slow down, take notice, and respond boldly.
These are 3 habits Dangerously Good Storytellers are non-negotiable level committed to.
Once you’re in the flow of it, it’s easy, only takes about an hour a week(ish), and it’s cathartic.
– You become a student of yourself.
– You start noticing the joys of your life more loudly than the things needing fixing or improvement.
– You no longer need to reclaim superficial “being present.”
You’re a master at creating and cultivating meaningfulness.
Isn’t that what life’s really about?
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What’s life without meaningfulness?
Playing whack-a-mole to fix and improve your way through life with a handful of pitstops for rich connection at weddings, babies, family reunions, funerals?!
This is literally what I wrote down while on a call with a friend when I was trying to describe what my Tiny Story List & this practice does for me:
Not everyone has that exact same result.
Everyone needs something a little different, but it’s all within this realm of “meaningfulness.”
Meaningful means different things to everyone, after all.
People that work with me often say things like this:
This is only one hour(ish) each week(ish) to slow down, take notice, and respond boldly.
This practice is not like when you decide to eat really clean or to exercise everyday, etc. When you decide to do something, get derailed by a rabbit hole of research, believe you need to buy this shiny new object to help, etc.
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You can do this on your own and not buy a thing.
Is there anything more refreshing than that?
There’s no secret information you have to buy and several free resources for you.
You can learn my entire 5-Part Practice for free—nothing held back (invite below).
The only thing reserved for active Dangerously Good Storytellers is my consistent guidance + feedback, the printed Playbook for your stories, and private member community + content hub.
You can go all in if you want. I mean, I love a good love at first sight story. That said, considering we only met for the first time (from social media, this blog post, the podcast, etc.), and you courageously said YES to this reading relationship we’ve started… I’m cool with taking it slow too.
I need to earn your trust. And frankly, I don’t want to be a fling with a moment of your attention.
So, let’s commit to small steps forward, okay?
Here’s the next, small step onward:
Let’s get a few of your tiny stories out of your mental archives & onto paper. Start your Tiny Story List today.
If you haven’t already (or it’s been awhile), please do this free Tiny Story Power Hour.
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A Tiny Story Power Hour: Unearth & Repurpose Your Stories
This is one hour slow down session dedicated to:
- unearthing at least 10 of your tiny stories,
- exploring how you can repurpose them boldly
- decide the Top 3 actions to call in fulfillment, meaningfulness, & even to make someone’s day using your tiny stories,
- and celebrating living AWAKE, not sleepwalking through your life. ✨
Give it a watch… and I’ll guide you through.The 1-hour recording is ready to watch now.
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