Episode 794 Comfort Stories
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 794 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:10] from the don't retire graduate podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasuries to live out your calling. Having the ability to plan for the future is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:41] when you begin to recognize that it allows you to forearm yourself. It's also used in advertising this way. Why do you think so many advertising logos and stories and commercials will often show things that are familiar and comfortable to us. They're trying to associate their brand with that [00:01:00] feeling of comfort.
[00:01:01] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence.
[00:01:24] So that you can impact the world
[00:01:35] in today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about how we find comfort in stories. I share why this is something you can recognize for yourself and others. And I talk about why this comfort, this idea of comfortable stories. Isn't a bad thing. You've heard me talk about developing your talent and what [00:02:00] are the best ways to do that is through books.
[00:02:02] But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from. And you can pick one and listen your way to developing your talents via audible.
[00:02:29] That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. So if you've been following the news, there's still a lot of stress and a lot of fear and a lot of things going on. And at whatever time you listened to this podcast, I will predict that there's probably some stress.
[00:02:54] And some fear and some other things going on, because that is always true [00:03:00] at all times. It seems like no matter when you tune in, at least in the modern world, there's always something to be afraid of something to be fearful of something to be stressed out about whether it's just in our day-to-day life or whether it's in the larger picture.
[00:03:17] That's true. And one of the interesting statistics that goes on is that during times like this companies now, like Netflix and others that are streaming services discovered that oftentimes the most played shows during, as stress goes up are the shows that are reruns. The shows that we've seen before, whether it's going back to the Andy Griffith show, or I love Lucy, or whether it's something like the office.
[00:03:47] Something more modern even, the Marvel movie that you see in 300 times, or going back to a book that maybe you've read before and you read it again for the [00:04:00] third or the fourth or the fifth or the 12th time there's truth that we find comfort in stories. And we often returned to the stories that we already know.
[00:04:12] Not to mention the fact that almost all stories are based on very similar formulas. So we recognize the formula of the story. We recognize the path of the story. And if it's one we've read before we already know the ending. And so what happens is even though there's something going on in the story, that's stressful, that's worrisome the fact that we know the ending comforts us.
[00:04:37] The fact that we know the ending makes us feel safer. It makes us feel like the world is a little bit more predictable. And what happens is when we're under stress, we begin to feel like the world is unpredictable and there is truth in that the world has a level of unpredictability. But at the same time we want predictability.
[00:04:58] We want [00:05:00] structure. We want things to take on a certain pattern. We want things to happen for reasons. And when we begin to feel like that may not be true, we seek comfort in stories that we already know. And what's interesting about this is you can recognize this, not just for yourself, but for others.
[00:05:20] It's one of the reasons that narrative and story communicates so well when we're trying to influence others in a positive way, when we're trying to make an impact on the world. I've talked before about the idea that stories sell and facts. Tell we, we have a tendency to think about the facts behind something instead of the narrative, the story, the journey behind something.
[00:05:45] And the truth is when you recognize that comfortable stories actually create comfortable emotions, they lower stress. And sometimes that's exactly what we need to do for others. We [00:06:00] want to influence others. If we want to impact the world, we do that sometimes through helping others feel good. And now I'm not suggesting you do this in a manipulative way, or you do this and you lie about it or you hide the truth, but it is.
[00:06:16] Good to recognize. That's one of the reasons people connect with story because they feel like they know the ending. They know the structure, they know the format, they know what's coming and what's going to happen. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing. First off, you can use it yourself. If you need self care, if you need to lower your stress level, recognizing that going back to things that you already know is a good self-care technique, and you can recognize it in others as well, and whatever they're fearful or when they're stressed out or when they're having problems, you can help reach out to them and give them, share them, share with [00:07:00] them a narrative or a story.
[00:07:02] That helps comfort them that helps lower their stress. And I'm not suggesting you just walk up and hand somebody, the wizard of Oz or an old book that they've read before, but by walking them through it, you can help them understand the truth of what is to come and you can help them understand the ending.
[00:07:22] Recognize, this can be used in a positive way or in a negative way. The positive way is by recognizing and comforting people, whenever they're afraid and helping them move forward strongly, but it can be used to manipulate people as well. It can be used whether it's by somebody like a cult leader or somebody who's trying to control others in a negative way, or whether it's being used by a politician.
[00:07:46] When you begin to recognize that it allows you to forearm yourself. It's also used in advertising this way. Why do you think so many advertising logos and stories and commercials will often show things [00:08:00] that are familiar and comfortable to us. They're trying to associate their brand with that feeling of comfort.
[00:08:07] When you begin to see that it allows you to both recognize it and use it in a good way, but it also begins to allow you to inoculate yourself and defend yourself against people that are using it in a bad way, in a manipulative way. So it's not necessarily a bad thing to seek comfort, but you do need to be aware of how it's being used by you and against you every day.
[00:08:35] Thanks for listening.
[00:08:41] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you liked this episode on the [00:09:00] stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.
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