Alex Le’s Blog

This summer I’ve been reading quite a bit. I read about Richard Feynman and found out that he is an original and very inspirational person. His outlook on life was extremely positive, and he was one good story teller. I realized that many successful people are in fact good story tellers. Good story telling is not just about communications, it’s about putting the listeners into the scene to engage them, to help them visualize the settings and to imagine the reality of that story.

I have never been very good at telling people what’s in my head, or what happened to me. Most of the time, the other person lost track of what I was saying after a while. I felt frustrated, shut up, and moved on, but deep inside I know that something is missing in the way I’m communicating. So I did a Google search on “how to be good at telling story” and got 13.8M results. Apparently many people are wondering about this too. The number 1 result, DumbLittleMan’s “A Formula for Telling a God Story” actually has very good tips on this topic.

The formula is broken down into 6 parts: Who, What, Where, Conflict, Resolution, and Tag. The story needs to tell the listener the person (who) involved in the situation (what) and the setting of that situation (where). Then the main point of the story is the conflict part, why this story matters. Then finally, the resolution of this conflict and a conclusion (tag), witty if possible.

My weakness is in the building up an arch of story that the listener can relate to. It’s just like hearing one’s own voice on a video for the first time and realizes how different it sounds than the way one hears it. As the person who’ve experienced the story, I have all the background information on why this bit of story is interesting, however, the other person doesn’t. I ended skipping too many details to help him/her fill in the blank. Like a puzzle that missing so many pieces that the picture is spotty with holes.

Another weakness of mine is in the way I explained the conflicts. I’d get excited and went too fast, and along the way, the listener was lost. I could detect the slightest change in the listener’s body language that he/she wasn’t engaged in the story anymore, and I tried to explained more, but only to confused that person further. I’ve been telling myself to slowdown a bit so that my brain can work out more details, and reduces the use of filling words such as “uh”, “uhm”, “like.” My goal is to stop using these words and substitue them with small pauses instead.

The DumbLittleMane’s article is a good start for me, and like all things, practice makes perfect. I’ll revisit this topic later on when I detect any improvements.

I’ve learned alot about life in the past 2 weeks. It’s not 42 as the majority of people think. What life does is that it does take your efforts into consideration. You are who you want to be, you will have what you put your efforts into achieving it. Ironically, I did not learn that lesson, until it’s too late. Without getting into too much of my personal life, I can tell you that fight for any reasons for what you dream and wish for. Don’t make the same mistakes like I did until you realize it’s all too late.

Martin Luther King once said, “I have a dream…“, Stephen Colbert also said “I had a dreamsicle…” What do both men have in common? For MLK, many generations after him took the proper actions to remove prejudice and discrimination to fulfill the vision, the hope, the dream. For Colbert, he took his effort to finish off his dreamsicle and made me laugh. Actions must be taken after a dream is born. As you may guess, I didn’t put enough efforts in keeping something that is so precious to me and thus, I am here typing this post as a reminder to never again repeat myself. It costs me alot. What a price I have to pay for this lesson of life.

And it takes a man to think and act, but a boy to act then think. I was the boy, luckily, I was able to think it thru after the damage’s been done. Act a fool and you are one. So how can you not become a fool, even your emotions get into your very braincell? Courage for self-restraint and look at the truth from a different angle, proper guidance and consulting from friends. From what I lost, I found something else: friendship and a more understanding of my innerself.

I found out that there are a lot for me from my friends. They have provided me comforts in my most desparate time, and many advices (good or bad) for me. Suddenly I realized that I have neglected lots of precious things in life. Fortunately, friends are a lot more forgiven than that someone. You can call them up after a year and be like “What’s up.” If you don’t call that someone for a day, it will be like … Oh well, you fill in the rest. So the other lesson that I learned is how powerful friendship can be.

When I was completely shaken of my ground of my own beliefs, I was completely paralyzed - mentally. What comforted me was the trip to my very innerself, subconscious if you will. I followed the excellent, excellent guidance from the Adam Eason’s book, The Secret of Self-Hypnosis. After each trip talking to my innerself (Yes, I name it too, my middle name, Minh as it means lucid in Vietnamese), I am a little calmer, a little more understanding of myself and why I act the way I do. It was powerful. Instead of fighting and loosing every single battle in my mind, I clear out a path in my mind for conscious to talk to my subconscious mind. It works. I am not sure if I was able to experience “trance“, but I am firm that I was able to regain my composure. What I want to say is that it’s worth to spend some time just to get to know yourself. For if you don’t know yourself, how can you expect to know about other people’s needs?

Lastly, time is magic. You can build a kingdom from scratch with time. You can also destroy everything you have with time. Just look at those pyramids and ancient civilizations. And time can heal any wound. That is the magic I am talking about. I know for me to be completely on my feet again, I have to take this time as precious, in stead of for granted, and work to heal of my wound.

So what should you expect after reading my post (thank you!)? Get on and start what you’ve been dreaming about and FINISH it off, NOW! Life doesn’t take waiting to make things happen as that would be too easy.

It’s not 42, it’s not magic, it’s not whatever you name it. It is the very small incremental step you put efforts into every day to achieve your dream is the truth of life.