The Power of Story

September 3, 2007
According to this pragmatic self-help, each person has a story they tell themselves about themselves, which is often flawed and misunderstood by the conscious mind telling it: "Residing in the subconscious is most of the hidden matter that influences our stories-all the instinctual urges coded in genes... all the conditioning that took place during childhood... all the trauma and conflicts festering." Performance psychologist Loehr, coauthor of The Power of Full Engagement, shows how these stories, which can be as broad as a worldview ("The world is full of traps and misfortune") or focused unhealthily on a particular "subplot" (like work), define our reality and "destiny." To fix a story gone awry, Loehr explains how to plumb the mind's depths with honest questioning and self-regard, then to rewrite stories using three basics of storytelling-purpose, truth and action-in order to fashion a new, healthy, mission-oriented narrative. Later chapters provide guidelines for rewriting, with instructions on "indoctrinateing yourself" and creating specific training "rituals" you can adopt to turn "story into action." Loehr draws a lot of complex, convincing points from his seemingly simple premise; his book should give anyone suffering from general life dissatisfaction or business malaise plenty to think over.