A Different Kind of Pivot
Step 2: The Pivot
Where is a moment with a clear before and after? A moment when you risk something, change, learn or make a difference?
Some moments become landmarks in a life well lived. I use them when I need to reassure myself that I’m doing the right things.
For example, when I opened my inbox and saw “not to sound bipolar, but you’re an idiot. Take me off your list”, I brought myself back to the moment where I was standing on stage clapping my hands over my head and listening to the crowd erupt in applause as I yelled “give it up for Brad, Jerry, and Alexandra!” last week at the Brain Crawl. Then I responded honestly, “That doesn’t sound bipolar at all. I made sure to take you off the list though.”
I’m going to tell you about another moment this week. It’s a moment every bit as powerful as standing on stage with a cheering crowd, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to overlook.
We teamed up with Carol Barash, a fellow Techstars graduate and founder of Story2, for the #CraftYourStory webinar, and the moment came when Carol found an error on one of her examples.
First, to give you some context, Story2’s mission is:
To create a future where everyone, from every background, can tell their stories and pursue their boldest dreams.
A natural fit with our goal of a world where people with brain disorders can live openly with Hope for their future. I took a screenshot of the worksheet* that accompanied the webinar for the purposes of this post.
Ok, now be honest, did you really read the instructions? Just in case:
An Experience is general, over an extended period of time, and happens to many people.
A Moment is specific to you. It happens in a fixed period of time, in the world, with other people.
How about a few examples? Take a couple minutes (1:48 to be exact) and watch as Carol walks through a few. Pay close attention. This is the moment I’ve been talking about.
I’m sure Carol has given countless examples of moments and experiences, but this was the first time she used her own lived moments and experiences with a brain disorder. Well, not all of them were hers. When Carol caught the error she said,
“I didn’t go to social work graduate school. That’s the part that’s not true.”
I’m usually not one to point out others mistakes, but in this case I thought I’d go ahead and fix the mistake.
I’ll also take the liberty of adding another moment to the list. You can watch it in its entirety here.
Carol described how the error came about:
I was partially making this up this morning, and then I made more of it mine as the day went on.
When Carol first made the slides, the ‘Experiences’ were a list of things based on others’ lives and others’ stories. It was actually in the ‘Moment’ of the webinar that she began a more honest reckoning of her own experience with brain disorders.
Experiences including post traumatic stress as a result of being raped as a child and feeling like no one listened to her, of burying that trauma and running away from those memories by indulging manic states.
She tells how the fortress fell apart in the spring of her sophomore year at Yale, and the year she took off, living and working in a community program for people who had been hospitalized for brain illness. She proved that none of us are bulletproof when she crashed again following the birth of her daughter.
Even with those incredibly challenging experiences, Carol models the power of resilience and Hope, and is now sharing #365DaysOfStory to explore the power of storytelling to heal individuals and communities.
In a moment, Carol decided to pivot and take the risk to change the conversation on brain health and make a difference for myself and people like me. The next time I doubt what we’re doing at Sigmend, I’ll remember what Carol said following the webinar,
“Sigmend is helping me to tell and heal and Hope.”
Which brings me to…
Step 3: The Glow
Where does the story end? Not the moral, but the end of the action? What is the last thing you’ll leave the reader with to make them remember you?
Actually, I don’t want to leave you with something to remember me. I’d rather you listen to the webinar and remember that this is what courage sounds like. This is what Hope looks like. And this is what happens when brilliant, creative people decide to live openly!
Carol Barash joins a growing list of these types of individuals in opening up, not as outcasts or crazy people, but as beacons of Hope for the rest of us.
- I’d link to the worksheet here, but frankly a worksheet doesn’t do justice to Story2’s approach to storytelling or the technology to support the process. I’m going to save you some time (and do a shameless plug for the approach of openness I believe in) and send you to www.story2.com/resources instead, or better yet call their coaching coordinator, Brooke at 800-206-5530 or email at getstarted@story2.com.
from sigmend.com
