You've made my day

Are you one of those people that others open up to and share their life stories, whether you ask them to or not?

It frequently happens to me.

On a recent morning walk, I found myself chatting with a complete stranger.

He seemed keen to talk and shared a lot of his personal story. In truth he wasn’t in a good place so for the most part I listened and reflected.

Imagine my surprise when as we parted company he thanked me for making his day!

I thought about why that might have been.

Simply letting him talk probably helped.

With a counselling background, I knew how hard depression is, for both the person suffering and those around them so he probably felt understood.

I was familiar with several of the techniques he was using to improve his life and could tell him about other people I knew who’d successfully used those techniques so he probably felt validated.

I’ll never know – but I know that I made his day.

Encouraging people to share their stories as a means of connection is what I do in my business so the irony of this tale was not lost.

And by telling me I’d made his day, he also made mine!

Need help with sharing your story? I’m your person so let’s have chat.

https://calendly.com/storycoach/30min

Rachel Maunder is a communication skills and speaker coach and professional speaker.

She has been in the world of competent communication, in different guises, for more than 30 years so has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise to pass on to her clients, both through her signature programmes and her own presentations.  

You can find out more about her coaching programmes here and about her speaking topics here.