Stories That Leave You With Goosebumps

Garth Beyer

As it goes nowadays, don’t ask where I saw what I’m going to tell you I saw because I don’t remember. All I remember is that I watched a video wherein there was a large glass phone booth placed in the city (likely NYC) and it had a cord running from it to a headset that was on a pedestal about 15 feet away.

There was a backdrop behind the pedestal and instructions that someone was supposed to enter the phone booth and speak into the phone and another person was supposed to listen 15 feet away. The point was to tell the other person how you really feel about them or thank them for something. What I heard people say to each other was touching and gave me goose bumps.

The group Improv Everywhere did something similar to this by placing a megaphone on a lectern that had a sign on it “SAY SOMETHING NICE.”

Then there is StoryCorps which combines the two, adds even more emotion to it by having the people right next to each other, and takes out the visual element of it. One particular story I listened to gave me even more goosebumps than when I watched the phone booth video.

The story of a kid, Brian Lindsay, who was struck by a van while riding his bike talked years later with the paramedic, Rowan Allen who was there at the scene.

The story was real, you can hear the voice, you can hear them say what was on their minds. Most stories that you read, they don’t tell you what they were thinking and if they do the emotion behind it is very narrow. With audio, it is more emotionally evocative and powerful because hearing the voices makes the story personal, human, and allows you to feel all the emotions – you can hear the laughter, you can hear the sarcasm, you can hear the passion in what they say.

Now think of reading a story or reading a text – you can’t register more than one emotion. “Is this person being sarcastic?” “Are they serious?” It leaves so much of the emotion to interpretation and if there’s one thing that’s difficult to put into words, it’s how people feel.

The main point on that is this: if you read a story wherein a person writes “I can’t put into words how I feel.” Then it’s a contradiction because they just did. But if you hear a story wherein a person says “I can’t put into words how I feel.” They really can’t, you get the emotion from it, you get the sincerity.

There’s a reason why it’s suggested that you write like you would speak. So people can hear you.

Before You Cut It

Garth Beyer

Ask yourself if you can create, provide, develop or be something better.9608313839_cd579fc4d3

If you can’t then you have no reason to cut it.

If you can, then you have every reason to create, provide, develop or be it.

Most ideas don’t need to be cut, they need to be made into better ideas.

Whole loaf bread is the only exception. Cutting it actually was a better idea.

 

Stay Positive & Carbohydrates For Thought

Garth E. Beyer

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Run!

Garth Beyer

I saw a brilliant sign at a race that read: “Run like someone just called you a jogger.”

At first glance, it was a silly motivational poster.

At second glance, the real truth of it all set in.

  • Work like someone just called you lazy.
  • Swim like someone just called you slow.
  • Paint like someone just called you a starving artist.
  • Write like someone just called you fake.
  • Run like someone just called you a jogger.

When you run, you don’t think. The sign was a reminder that you can use frustration as energy, but it was a better reminder that you forget about frustrations when you run. You don’t acknowledge your fear, you don’t worry, you forget the ankle pain, you forget about criticism, you forget about the time.

When you run, that’s all that you do, you run.

I’m writing a novel right now and the only way I can get through it each day is to sprint through it. If I don’t, then fear eats at my motivation as if it hadn’t eaten anything in months.

If you haven’t sprinted before, go run and give it a try.

 

Stay Positive & Do What You Love Like Someone Just Said You Couldn’t

Garth E. Beyer

The Tragedy Of Practice Makes Perfect

Garth Beyer

The more you do something, the better you get.

What they don’t tell you is that the more you do something, the better you expect from yourself to do.

It’s bittersweet, really.

I’ve written 1,700 words a day for my novel. I think it’s turning out really great, but every time I sit down to write my 1,700 words, I have to remind myself that just because I get better when I write more, doesn’t mean what I write today will be better.

When we forget to remind ourselves of that – whether it’s writing, painting, making calls, or whatever – then we make ourselves vulnerable to disappointment and defeat.

How you did yesterday might have been great. How you will do today, though, can only be determined once it’s done and you can’t use it as a prediction for how you will do tomorrow. Doing so only makes giving up easier.

Pick Your Costume, Path, Hat…

Garth Beyer

Halloween is over but I still see people trying to find the perfect costume, path, hat…

(This post is choppy with a purpose. Bare with me.)

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Not everyone is cut for a traditional education, not everyone can look good putting on a hair-net and flipping burgers, not everyone can be the all-star jock. Simple fact is that different people are looking for different costumes.

My favorite part about Halloween is seeing people who think they are wearing the same costume as someone else. Two people can dress up as a cat, but the makeup is different, the ears are different, the tail is different. We all have something special to offer even if we wear the same costume, walk the same path or put on the same hat each morning.

There’s a reason most agencies need multiple coders, PR people with different personalities, and a variety of people answering phones.

My SO gets me to watch Cupcake Wars and while the bakers are all professional cupcake makers, their finished cupcake products are different from one another.

Starbucks can hire five people who can make a perfect brew, but they all make it their way. The speed they complete an order is different, what they write on the cup is different,  how they hand it to a customer is different.

And when it comes to designers, I have never seen two designers that design the same. Not even when one designer tries mimicking another.

Doing It Right

You’re getting a lot of variety thrown at you here and I appreciate you reading through the choppiness of it all. But there is a point to it.

No matter what you do, you get to invest yourself in it, add your style, put part of you into it. Unfortunately, so many people give up following their interests because what they create is so different.

I still remember one day a few years ago that I thought of melting crayons on a canvas to make art. I never did it because I thought people would say it was stupid, no one would like it, and it was just too different.

A few months after my decision not to do it, a classmate did it and her piece got showed in a glass case in the school. Then I was surfing the web and saw that she wasn’t even the first one to make something by melting crayons on a canvas.

Turns out what I thought people would think was just too different to like, they actually loved.

Doing It Wrong

You’re going to have a lot of people tell you that you’re doing something wrong because it’s different. Worse yet, you’re often going to tell yourself that you’re doing it wrong because you have never seen anything like it before.

The harsh truth is that you (and they) might be right. But it’s better to be wrong and learn from it than not do it at all and never know.

 

Stay Positive & Remember, It’s About How You Deliver

Garth E. Beyer

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FAA Eases Restriction On Electronic Devices During Flights: Good For Airlines And…

Garth Beyer

The Federal Aviation Administration has given the O.K for airlines to allow passengers to use electronic devices during flight. (Press Release here)

If you think that means you can be on Facebook and surf the web during flights, you’re wrong. You still have to have the devices on airplane mode.

While this has been the buzz lately, I think we need to give a quick high-five to Amazon. It didn’t take long for Amazon’s PR team to take advantage of the FAA’s announcement.

Amazon celebrated FAA’s decision by giving a 15 percent discounts on Kindles.

High-five, Amazon’s PR folk

Doing A Lot Is A Lot To Do

Garth Beyer

When in doubt breathe it out.

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Or quit. Michelle reminds us that quitting is okay.

I want to remind you that quitting something you love is okay too. Whether you (or I) want to admit it at all, surely there is something out there that we could love even more than what we are investing our time with now.

Creating space to be filled by something else is a natural transaction.

A worthy one at that.

 

Stay Positive & Free Yourself, Just Don’t Use The Time As An Excuse To Be Lazy

Garth E. Beyer

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