Last week I ran into a guy at an airport who said that when he and his wife created their Storyline it was the highest point of their marriage. I wasn’t surprised. Story is, after all, a sense-making device. Story helps us understand ourselves and others. It helps us realize where we’ve been and chart a path for where we’d like to go.
A Storyline is a life-mapping tool consisting of several modules, modules that help you understand yourself as a character, chart the positive and negative turns in your life, anticipate and have a positive attitude about conflict and fuel your life with vision. Without story structure, our lives feel like they don’t make sense. But when you’ve created your storyline, you’re sitting in the theater of your mind, fully engaged in your own story. You’re wondering what’s going to happen next, because you know who the character is and where they’d like to go.
Let me explain:
What is Storyline? from Donald Miller on Vimeo.
At the Storyline Conference, you’ll spend two days creating your Storyline, and being inspired to live a better story. If you’ve not registered, consider registering today.
Awesome video, Great storytelling.
Thanks Don for helping me wrap my simple mind around the concept.
Don!
You should totally do the IJM Freedom Tour with Venture Expeditions this July! I’d love to ride, hang and share a story with you!
Brandon
Totally awesome concept! one of the reasons the Bible is my favorite book is not a spiritual reason at all; it’s just that the Holy Spirit is a great story teller, and I love how the good, the bad, the ugly, the ‘truth’ is all there w/out reservation or hesitation!
Abraham lied about Sarah being his sister, so the Holy Spirit tells the writer to record this; Moses the gentle spirited meek guy, gets angery and break the tablets of commands, the Holy Spirit allows this too; David, a king chosen by God and after God’s own heart, lusts, desires another man’s wife, sleeps with her, gets her pergnant, and to cover up the mess [when his plan didn’t work that Uriah comes back and spends a night with his wife}, then he kills him!! what a mess, but the Bible doesn’t color it, or give excuses for this, just recites it for us! All those are the ‘great men’ of the Bible!
Yule, are going to complain in the line up above there are no women, so here are some: Sarah is controling and pushes Abraham to Marry Hagar because she’s too impatient to wait on the Lord’s promise! Naomi, leaves her land because there’s no bread, as if God ever let her starve before; she doesn’t complain when her sons marry foreign women whom God specifically said not to mix up with ‘Moabits’ to the 10th generation! Rachel, the beautiful, complains to Jacob, drives him knuts telling him if he doesn’t ‘somehow’ allow her to have children she will die of anger and frustration??? ‘LOL, kinda of funny’! two women are fighting and complaining in Philipians, so paul says to someone, help them get their act together! Martha is too anxious, and won’t stop, not even to listen to her beloved Jesus for a bit, no breaks! All this, the Bible recorded, as is, no beautification, corrections, or excuses!
Why I wonder?
This is really cool, and I’m considering registering. Do you have a ‘broke-recent-college-grad’ discount? Haha, kidding. I’ll see what I can do to make it!
Awesome video!!! I’m even more excited about the Nashville conference.
Just got around to reading Blue Like Jazz for the first time. I know, I’m so up on the newest trends.
Anyways, great stuff. Thanks for doing what you do. I’ll continue reading.
P.S. I think I have a weakness for Canadian girls.
I received an email for the Nashville dates, but I can’t seem to track it down. Is it May 5-6 or 6-7? Flights to Nash are UBER cheap today, so…
Sorry…found it. May 6-7
Are the times in Nashville going to be the same as in Portland? Starting Sunday afternoon at 1:30ish?
Well, booking flight because it is uber cheap and hoping the times are the same…otherwise, I shall just visit some Nash friends and eat at Puckets!
In short, your work (Million Miles..) has changed my life, my family and the lives of several people around me.. I just keep giving the book away to people i meet..
In August, my wife and i adopted 4 children to add to our 4.. now as a family of 8 we are daily striving to “write a better story” together.. and on New Years day our 17 year old son.. (oh yes we did) had a neighbors hood parade with over 70 neighbors taking part.. we are truly living the adventure.. way too many storys to tell, but I just wanted to say thank you and God bless you and the team!!.. Hope to be able to come see you in Nashville!!..
john
Sarasota FL
Hey Don,
I love that you are doing this; it is wonderful to see people helping people make their dreams make sense and come true.
I hope all of this is also a dream coming true for you; it is a pleasure to watch unfold from the sidelines. I hope to attend at some point.
I am incredibly grateful for what your life, writing, and work has brought to my life. Blue Like Jazz rocked my world, when I read it the first time, and affirmed my awkward faith in a crucial way. Since then: reading your other books, hearing of TMP, reading A Million Miles and then hearing of the movie … I decided to start getting involved, I’ve been elated to play a small part in TMP–from a great distance, I even decided to pitch in for the movie (although I never did get a phone call
), and the story of the power of story has helped me help a few people begin living out some of their dreams … why does this mean so much to me? Because although I feel like God has given me more talent than I know what to do with in a lifetime, I’m fuzzy on my own dreams and what there is for me to do in this life. BUT in the meantime I still get a purpose: helping you get your stuff done. And that is very very cool!
I’m so glad you continue doing good in the world like this conference series. You are appreciated and a true encouragement.
God bless you and I will be praying for you,
Sherri
You are probably already aware of this but your Twitter page is missing for some reason.
Nevermind…. Found it.
You may just want to update your website link at the top of our page to point folks to your new Twitter handle: donaldmiller
What a fun intro
I’d like to ask …is this tact a different way than you used to subscribe to? (like Blue Like Jazz era Don…kind of anti bullet point theme) Is Story in many ways just another word for “Formula”?
Wow! not sure I can make to Storyline, but just watching the video go me so inspired. thanks!
Fellow commenters and shameless pluggers: If you go to my site, MarkWritesWords.com, and comment on any blog, then I will go to your blog and do the same!
Let’s start a community of aspiring Donald Miller’s and encourage one another.
What do you think? Ready, Set, Go to MarkWritesWords.com and comment!
Don’t make your story a bad one!
http://xkcd.com/1006/
Thanks for helping me think differently about some stuff that’s going on at work. When I see it through the lens of “conflict” in a great story instead of just conflict, I feel hopeful.