If telling our stories were as easy as picking up a drive-through chicken sandwich for lunch, we’d all be doing it, right?

But I’ve not met many people who have started and finished telling their story - whether that be in book form, or with a legacy video.

Why is that?

Remembering an entire lifetime of facts, emotion, and pulling it together in a way that connects with others to read or watch it is a monumental task. Especially on your own.

In this blog post, I’m going to offer 3 reasons why you can tell your story now, right in the middle of it.

Reason #1 to tell your story now: Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

If you’ve ever heard me talk about why I am so passionate about helping people tell their stories with video, you probably heard about my hero, my grandma.

You probably heard how, at her 90th birthday party, she got to watch the documentary film of her life, surrounded by family and friends. But it wasn’t just her in the video. She saw nearly all of her children and grandchildren in the video celebrating her impact in all our lives.

She passed away 4 months later.

If we had waited just a couple months to finished the video, she would have missed that beautiful moment of honor and celebration that we all cherish.

To some of you, that may sound like an ideal timeline. You get to live out your whole life, and tell your story nearly to the end, then fade into glory with your legacy preserved and celebrated by the next generation.

But then I realized something…

Reason #2 to tell your story now: Memories fade quicker than you think.

My family found an old magazine article a couple days ago featuring an interview with my grandmother from the 1950s. She was recounting dates, people, and events that she never told me when I filmed her over 60 years later.

Despite missing those details, we were still able to capture her life story in an incredible way, and she did remember many things. But it was a good reminder that as we age, all those details and facts get lost, unless we get into the practice of telling them again and again through story.

Of course any of us can expect to lose significant details from our stories after 60 years! But what about more recent stories? Can you remember all the facts about the birth of your first child? What about something that happened 3 years ago? What about the beginning of this year? What about yesterday?

Unless we make remembering an active part of our lives, it’s so easy to let those important moments in our lives slip away to time. Telling your story with video ensures those memories are fresh, accurate, and carry the emotional impact you desire.

Reason #3 to tell your story now: You’re not too young.

I’ve been working on a legacy film for a friend and midwife who is in her 30s. When I asked her if she’d be interested in working with me to tell her story, I was surprised to learn that she had been longing for a way to capture and celebrate her career to date - 10 years as a midwife and attending nearly 1000 births!

She is right in the middle of doing the thing she is most passionate about. And she is actively navigating changes in the work she does and in her family to prepare for the seasons and stories ahead of her. She wanted to celebrate her accomplishments so far, and capture her hopes and dreams for the future.

What a grounding and establishing work telling her story has been!

In 10 more years, do you think she’ll regret capturing her career to date at that time?

No matter where her story goes from here, looking back and remembering this milestone is something she can be proud of, and pass on to her children and grandchildren for generations to come - to show them how she navigated the challenges in her life, and how she pressed in to do what she was called to do.

So what’s holding you back from telling your story?

Before we press record on a video camera, it’s so important to gather the details and organize your story, so you can tell it confidently and completely.

The first step in telling your story is something we’re offering and including in all our video packages. We call it “The Story Framework.”

Come experience how I turn a conversational one-hour meeting into a detailed outline that you can use to write that book or create that video you’ve been dreaming of.

Never worry about not knowing HOW to tell your story.

Never tell yourself that you’ll get around to it “later.”

Start confidently taking steps toward telling your story with a process that is compassionate, simple, and fun!