You are just one talk away to change the world. You have stories to tell that only you can give. Don’t let your story die in you. Don’t let your story die with you.
You may be thinking that people won’t be interested to hear from you. You tell yourself that you have a regular life. That like others you still struggle every day. That you have not achieved anything of worth.
I understand.
A fish swims in water. It is ordinary. Never mind that humans can’t swim longer than a fish. Whatever you do every day is ordinary to you. You’ve been living your life. You’ve learned life’s lesson. There is nothing to it that excites you at all.
Many times I also think the same about my life. It is very ordinary.
And what do I mean by ordinary? To me, my ordinary life means I have many unfulfilled plans and dreams. That my life from sunrise to sunset is eighty percent the same. Nothing extraordinary at all.
That’s how I see my life because I am swimming in it.
But I realized that my life, your life, is not ordinary. There is really nothing ordinary.
Our stories are still unfolding. We may think that nothing much in our lives is changing.
We are changing every day.
We don’t notice how our lives change because we are swimming in it.
Yesterday, I was talking to a new client.
When we were done talking about business, we started talking about our personal lives. He shared stories of how life when he was in his country and how living in the Philippines made a positive change in how he relates to people.
Then I told him a bit of mine.
I told him of my early years.
I learned how to count money even before I entered any classroom. That’s because my mother made me sell suman from one house to another. In Camotes, when I was small, one house to another was about a hundred meters away.
That was the start of my lesson in salesmanship.
I saw the sparkle in his eyes when I told him about the struggles I had. He could not imagine that kind of life. He never saw something like mine.
The first lesson my mother taught me made me survive.
Because anyone who can sell anything cannot be hungry. Anyone who has something that others don’t have can achieve something in his life.
While I was driving home yesterday, I was thinking that I am very much capable of making hundreds of thousands every month. That a person who has my skills and talents can offer much value to others.
I only need to share my ordinary stories with people who need to hear it. Because for them, my ordinary stories are inspirational. These are the stories they badly need at this very moment.
I went to this page this morning. It is the page I used to promote myself as a leadership speaker. I realized that it is just a page. There is nothing much to it. Yes, it ranked well in Google search (#2) when you look for a leadership speaker in the Philippines.
But there is no story. No story of mine. No stories of leaders who can be a model for others.
Was I afraid when I made that page? Maybe.
I had the opportunity to change someone’s life by sharing stories.
I was one page away from making a difference in the lives of others. I was just one page away from reaching thousands of people who are looking for a motivational speaker who can inspire their leaders.
But I miss the opportunity.
I can say the same for speaking.
I am one talk away from changing someone’s life. I am one talk away from changing thousands of lives.
I can say the same for you. You are one talk away.
Your stories aren’t ordinary stories to millions of people around the world. Yours are unique stories that people want to read and hear.
Please don’t let your stories die in you. Let it grow with you.
I realized that there is much I can learn from my stories. I only need to remember. I only need to mine lessons that may equip and inspire others.
Today, I will make the world know that I am offering myself to them. That I will offer these stories to schools in Laguna so their students will be inspired to play bigger.
Today, I will share stories when possible. I will share my stories. I will share other stories. I will make new stories.
Today, I encourage you to appreciate the ordinariness of your life and the stories you can mine from it. Find valuable lessons that may change the life of one or one thousand.
You are just one talk away.
Jef Menguin
P.S. I also realized that to make positive change possible, we only need to start something. I encourage you to read Start Something Today.
