Developing Your I-Story is a Key to Making an Impact

Today’s post is by my friend and colleague Life Coach and author Sheri Kaye Hoff.  Please enjoy this excerpt from her new book- Be the Inspiration: 7 Ways to Inspire Your World.  Thank you Sheri for writing this book and including my story along with the touching and inspirational stories of other men and women.  You have raised the bar and birthed a book that is already creating positive change for thousands of our fellow travelers.  I loved reading it and I know others will too.  ~Janet

Developing your I-story is a key to making an impact in your professional and personal life.  Your I-story is all about you; it is all about your authentic you.

It’s important to know and be who you really are. If I say to someone, “Tell me about you”, that is the question that gets just about everyone flustered. It is because we sometimes have a hard time looking at ourselves or have a hard time knowing what the authentic self is really or what our message really is because we have layers and levels of ourselves.

There are different roles that we play in our lives and different things that we think we should do, but it is important to find the authentic you because that is how others resonate with you in the most powerful way.

It is your story that makes you unique. People like YOU. They do not want a version of you that is a copy of someone else, and it is vitally important to your leadership skills to be that authentic person. It is important if you own your own business. It is important, if you are a co-worker- if you are a colleague.

Be your authentic self because people intuitively know when you are being the authentic you and when you are not.

In my own story I talk about when I was a teenager, my younger brother took his own life. I came home from school when I was 17 years old and I found my 15 year old brother after he had killed himself, and it was a terrible, tragic shock. Prior to this devastating event, we had kind of a story book family. He was not in trouble or even depressed for a prolonged period. It was a total shock. This had a tremendous impact on our community and my family. I floundered for about seven years before I started to effectively put the pieces of my life back together.

This event in my life is part of my I-story and when I became comfortable with sharing that part of my life, my coaching practice grew. People want to know about your pain and struggles. They want to know that you triumphed. They want to know who you really are.

Get your copy of Sheri Kaye Hoff’s new eBook today plus hundreds of dollars worth of valuable bonus gifts:  http://www.lifeisjoyful.org/be_book.html