Storyworthy Summary (C5): First Last Best Worst

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Even if you never tell your story, and most of them you won’t, there is still a lot of value in finding them.

Recalling a forgotten memory or learning how to view it from the “change moment” perspective will give you a new outlook on your life - past, present, and future.

The recognition of these memories will also help you connect the dots of your history. You will start to put together how seemingly unrelated or what you thought were meaningless moments have worked together to shape you into the person you are today.

This kind of personal insight is rare and extremely valuable.

In previous chapters, you’ve learned two methods for finding stories from your life:

Homework for Life and Crash & Burn.

Now you will learn another, called First Last Best Worst.

Basically, you take a memory triggering prompt and recall your first, last, best, and worst moments regarding that prompt.

For example, the prompt may be “pet.” Now think back to your first pet, your last (or current) pet, your best pet, and your worst pet. That’s four possible stories.

Write down a few words for each one, to remind you of a story from your past. For pets, you might just write the name of the pet. For a prompt like injury, you might use two or three words to describe the injury or how you got it.

Here is a list of prompts the author uses most often in his workshops:

• Kiss
• Car
• Pet
• Trouble
• Injury
• Gift
• Travel

Use a spreadsheet to compile all your stories with the prompts. For example:

Now analyze the chart by asking yourself these three questions:

1. Do any of the entries appear more than once? (if yes, it signals a likely story)

2. Could I turn any of these entries into anecdotes?

3. Could any entry be a full story?

You can highlight potential stories one color and potential anecdotes another.

You can also add your own prompts. Anything goes!

First Last Best Worst can be used for more than just finding story ideas.

It’s a great tool for getting to know new people (e.g., a first date or icebreaker) or to pass time - such as in a long car ride.

Read the next chapter here.

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