Other people’s stories make more sense to us when they resonate. When we recognize their experience in our own. We can be harsh on historic characters, harsh on our old selves, and harsh on others... distancing ourselves from them... but we can also not see them as essentially bad, but rather take every situation as how we could have found ourselves there. Find the resonance.
There are learnings to be had in the stories of others. That is the glorious part of being human, we don’t have to wait to make mistakes ourselves... if we recognise there but for, go I. We are all human and we have a common base. Even if that base has shadows and light. “Best Practice” allows us to get quite practical about a menu of approaches to common human experiences, if we are willing to listen.
One of the ways to take control of your career is to speak to people who already do what it is you are aiming to do. See whether the story you tell yourself matches with their reality. There reality won’t be yours, but it will resonate if you make similar choices. Find out what their days are like beyond the exciting bits that go into the sales pitch. What are their frustrations? What are the tradeoffs they have had to make? What would they tell a younger version of themselves?
Listening to other people’s stories will help you chart a path for yourself. Not as a stick to beat yourself with, but as a guide for decision making. Being curious about stories, and histories, and lessons in different contexts can help unpack the traps in our own tangled baggage. Increasing awareness of parallel paths or obstacles we didn’t even know about.
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