Where to find your best story ideas

If you’re thinking about doing more storytelling or engaging in thought leadership, your first question might be:

What will I write about?

Now, there are truly endless options. But I want to challenge the idea that you need to come up with MORE story ideas.

Why? Because you probably already have your best story ideas. They’re simply stocked away.

That’s right. You already have them. They’re just a bit buried, or messy, or hiding in the back of your mental filing cabinet.

Or, more significantly: you don’t realize the value of what you’ve already got.

It’s very likely that the opinions, observations, reflections, even frustrations kicking around the back of your head could make very good stories.

They might seem old or obvious to you, but if told the right way, they could be a game-changer for someone else.

So, if you want to start telling better stories and becoming a true thought leader, you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of time trying to find inspiration or coming up with something new and profound.

Instead, you need to...

→ Dig through your old files. Go through your filing cabinet and documents; your old journals or notebooks; the notes on your phone. And sift through your mental filing cabinet, too: what are the themes, questions, or topics you love to talk (maybe even rant) about?

→ Find a place to put all those ideas. Stick them in a file or folder (or as Twyla Tharp describes in her book The Creative Habit, put them all in a box).

→ Dissect the ideas. Clarify and refine them as best you can. Are there 2 or 3 key ideas that really stand out and matter to you?

→ Practice articulating those ideas. Yes, they will be imperfect and underdeveloped. Share them anyway. Talk about them with friends and family. See what happens when you speak them out loud.

→ Listen and refine. Observe and contemplate the feedback people give you on your ideas. Reflect on what you hear. This is how your ideas will evolve.

To be clear, this takes work. There’s usually both struggle and love involved. And I truly believe it benefits from partnership and collaboration.

It’s also how real thought leadership works.

Not because you have a flash of insight and come up with a bunch of new ideas.

But because you’re engaging more deeply with the ones you already have.