Storytelling at Work
June 23, 2019
THE POWER OF SIMPLY LISTENING

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"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would have rather talked." -- Mark Twain

"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." -- Stephen R. Covey

"The first duty of love is to listen." -- Paul Tillich

"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new." -- Dalai Lama

"The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent." -- Alfred Brendel

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." -- Ernest Hemingway

"There is a difference between listening and waiting for your turn to speak." -- Simon Sinek

"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." -- Karl A. Menniger

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." -- Winston Churchill

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"We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less." -- Diogenes

"The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said." -- Peter Drucker

"Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking." -- Bernard M. Baruch

"There's a lot of difference between listening and hearing." -- G.K. Chesterton

"You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time." -- M. Scott Peck

"For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after." -- Ursula K. Le Guin

"It takes two to speak the truth -- one to speak and another to hear."
-- Henry David Thoreau

"The art of conversation lies in listening." -- Malcolm Forbes

"Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don't have to do anything else. We don't have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen." -- Margaret Wheatley

"So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it." -- Krishnamurti

"If speaking is silver, then listening is gold." -- Turkish proverb

"There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen." -- Rumi

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk." -- Doug Larson

"When a woman is speaking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes." -- Victor Hugo

"Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right." -- Jane Goodall

"If you want to be listened to, you should put in time listening." -- Marge Piercy

"When listening to another person, don't just listen with your mind, listen with your whole body. You are giving the other person space -- space to be. It is the most precious gift you can give." -- Eckhart Tolle

"Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it's an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole." -- Marge Piercy

"Listening is an act of love." -- David Isay

"And so I had him thinking of me as a good conversationalist when, in reality, I had been merely a good listener and had encouraged him to talk." -- Dale Carnegie

"To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation." -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"Man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively." -- Carl Rogers

"There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens." -- Jimi Hendrix

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Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2019
THE HEART OF DOWNSIZING

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Next week I am submitting a treatment for my new book on downsizing to a very savvy agent in NYC and am asking for YOUR input if you have 5 minutes and some curiosity.

My book will not merely be a common sense guide to downsizing, as there are quite a few good books on that topic already. My book will be more about the "inner experience" and what there is to learn about life and ourselves from the effort.

Below is a list of possible chapters for the book. I'd love your input. Do any of these sing to you? Are there any other chapters you would like me to include?

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1. CONSUMERISM: I Have, Therefore I Am

2. IMPERMANENCE: All Things Must Pass

3. LETTING GO: The Art of Lightening Your Load

4. VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY: When Less Is More

5. GIFTING: Nothing is Created or Destroyed, Only Transformed

6. DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS: How to Begin

7. NEED VS. WANT: Getting Down to the Basics

8. THE YOGA OF DOWNSIZING: Shedding Light on Your Self

9. ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS: Creating the Next Chapter of Your Life

10. CHOOSING: Toss, Sell, Give, Keep, or Store?

11. KEEPING THE ELATION IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP: How to Keep Your Marriage Together When Letting Go of Stuff

12. DOWNSIZING WISDOM OF THE AGES: What the Great Spiritual Traditions Have to Say the Material World

13. YOUR DOWNSIZING GAME PLAN: 10 Simple Steps to Moving On With Your life

Bottom line, I see this book as a way to talk about some pretty BIG LIFE PRINCIPLES we all need to eventually deal with -- and I want to do so in a way that is accessible, entertaining, and meaningful to people. "Downsizing" merely becomes the catalyst for us to look into the mirror of our lives (not to mention our basement, garage, and closets).

One of my goals is to get a sizable advance, so I can let go of my various day job projects and really focus on the writing. Towards that end, I will be launching a GoFundMe campaign soon. I will post that link here in the hopes that you will be willing and able to become part of my grassroots effort to fund the writing and marketing of the book. It takes a village.

The working title of the book? THE HEART OF DOWNSIZING: When It's Time to Lighten Your Load.

NOTE: The book will also include short, real-life stories from my life to further paint the picture. Here's an example.

MitchDitkoff.com
Writing the next story of your life

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 12:57 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2019
Want to Facilitate Wisdom Circles in Your Living Room?

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If you are a lover of storytelling, wisdom, inspiration, and community, this blog post is for you.

I am gearing up to teach people, online, how to facilitate Wisdom Circles in their living rooms -- small group storytelling gatherings that require just the right person to facilitate the process.

It's simple to do, but not always easy. That's why I'm developing a 90-minute webinar to teach people how to do it -- so transformational storytelling can continue to take root all over the world.

If you are interested in participating, leave you name below or send me an email (mitch@ideachampions.com) and I will send you more info when I have it. Also, let me know what you think a fair price would be for the webinar -- what YOU would be willing to pay for a 90-minute session that would teach you everything you need to know to do these in your home, community, or organization.

My role, after the webinar, would be to find some simple ways to stay in touch with you and the other graduates so everyone has the support they need to continue developing their Wisdom Circle facilitation chops.

What people are saying about Wisdom Circles

Storytelling for the Revolution
What people are saying about my book
The kind of stories people want to tell and listen to

Posted by Mitch Ditkoff at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

ABOUT THE BLOG

Storytelling at Work is a blog about the power of personal storytelling – why it matters and what you can do to more effectively communicate your stories – on or off the job. Inspired by the book of the same name, the blog features "moment of truth" stories by the author, Mitch Ditkoff, plus inspired rants, quotes, and guest submissions by readers.

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"The world is not made of atoms," wrote the poet, Muriel Rukeyser. "It's made of stories." Learn how to discover, honor, and unpack the stories of yours that show up "on the job" in Mitch Ditkoff's award-winning 2015 book, Storytelling at Work.
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