We live, learn, and remember through story. Our brains weave each experience into the overall narrative that shapes who we are. Yet seldom do we step back to examine or consciously shape the overall story of our lives. As designers, many of us have a desire to change the world. And yet, as Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” If design is change, if we want to use design to effect change, shouldn’t we first think about changing ourselves by designing our own story? For the stories we tell ourselves can change the way we see the world and, by extension, change the world itself.

1. authoring a hero’s journey
finding meaning through story

2. Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and
discover the treasure of their true selves
– Carol Pearson
Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus (1490-1557)

3. we mold memories about the past and shape daydreams about
the future into archplots to give them vivid shape

4. life is normal,
predictable

5. then the hero wants something (aka object of
desire)
be a
presenter
life is normal,
predictable

6. leading to the dragon gap between current &
desired reality here be dragons
current reality future
reality

7. the hero sets out on a journey
current manner of new manner of
being | doing being | doing

8. experiencing progressively greater risks
will I choke?
OMG, I’m
committed… does
anyone really care
what I think?
what should I talk
about? how can I
get an abstract
accepted?
at times things will
REALLY suck
simplified hero’s journey modified from Kathy Sierra’s Where there’s passion, there are stories

9. creating meaningful change as they overcome each
obstacle naked/not naked
quit/don’t quit
face pain of
rejection, risk of
acceptance
never presented, ok I’m a presenter
with that

10. once they succeed in crossing the dragon gap, they
achieve a new normal
(at least until the next stage of the journey)
I’m a presenter
life is normal, predictable once again

11. why risk it?
(who in their right mind wants to face dragons)

12. Frequently, in the life of a priest, fifty years' experience is one year's experience repeated fifty
times. You get the same solutions to fall back on... Wisdom is to be sensitive to this situation,
to this person, uninfluenced by any carryover from the past, without residue from the
experience of the past.
– Anthony de Mello, Awareness
life is normal,
predictable

13. we each, in our own way, want to make a
difference
finding meaning in the story that is our life

14. any serious
creative
requires serious
meditation of
death
@gapingvoid
The Top 5 Regrets People Have on their Deathbed

15. If only I’d had the
courage to fulfill my
dreams, living a life
true to myself, not the
life others expected of
me

16. If only I hadn’t
worked so
hard, stuck on
a treadmill

17. If only I’d had the courage to express my feelings
Meanest Indian, flickr

18. If only I’d stayed in touch with my friends,
spending more time with the people I love Kash_if, flickr

19. If only I’d let myself be happier,
laughing properly,
allowing silliness

20. If only. Those must be the two saddest words
in the world.
– Mercedes Lackey

21. « le
marchand
de la mort
est mort »
When his brother died, a French newspaper mistakenly ran an
obituary of Alfred Noble referring to him as the merchant of
death. A pacifist at heart, he didn’t want to be remembered as
the merchant of death. He wrote himself a new obituary by
creating the Nobel Prizes.

22. why wait until
you’re dying?
What do you want your life
to represent?
How do you want to be
remembered?

23. One day I sat down and wrote two versions of my obituary. The first was the one that I wanted to have. I thought
of the obituaries that I enjoyed reading, the people that I admired. They were the adventurers and risk-takers…
They lived life with a greediness for new experiences, and gumption, and a gung-ho attitude that defied the attempts
of naysayers and nigglers to pigeonhole them or put them down. These people really knew how to live. The second
version was the obituary that I was heading for – a conventional, ordinary life – pleasant and with its moments of
excitement, but always within the safe confines of normality. – Roz Savage

24. a hero is driven by a controlling idea
that shapes the meaning of their story

25. it’s not your job title or job description that’s
gets you moving

27. unless something compels us, we’re not
going to risk the dragon gap
current reality future reality

28. controlling idea
a single sentence describing how and why life undergoes
change from one condition of existence at the beginning
to another at the end

29. purpose enables us to overcome fear, conquer
dragons, and persevere despite the naysayers

30. a job title is one aspect of WHAT you do
WHAT
HOW
chicken picker
blackjack dealer
WHY
night desk clerk
program manager
legislative assistant
technical writer
usability specialist
product designer
manager
director
How great leaders inspire action, Simon Sinek

31. a job description is (sort of) HOW you do it
WHAT
HOW
research
WHY
facilitate
listen
design
write
explore
teach
tell stories
discover stories

32. WHY do you do it? WHY are you here? WHY do
you get out of bed every morning? WHY should
anybody care? WHAT
HOW
WHY
bring more empathy,
emotion and design
into a world dominated
by rational machine
thinking, helping to free
inner designers, artists,
and storytellers

33. purpose gets your elephant moving
inspires
provides meaning
shapes strategic choices rider our emotional brain
(95%)
sparks imagination
focuses
allows for emergence
elephant
WHY
our rational brain
(5%)

34. purpose
controlling idea dream

36. And of course, it was then, and only then, that
the outside world started paying attention.
@gapingvoid

37. because purpose attracts
Tatters:) flickr

38. find your purpose
Write your obituary based on how you are living your life right
now, assuming no risk.
Give your inner critic a time out. Answer the question “What
would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?” What do you want people
to remember or do as a result of your life story? Write a
second obituary assuming you are living that life.

39. even with purpose, it can be hard to get your
hero moving
that’s where an inciting incident comes in

40. I have a bad back
throw out back 3rd
time in 3 months

41. 2 pager on sun
salutations in Canadian
Living

42. What does it mean to be
fit?

43. I am fit

44. a turning point revealing the
need to change
Scott Hudson, flickr

45. something happens
to get you moving

46. cog in the machine
not a key
employee

47. boss from hell
Always. Everyone. Everywhere.

48. What does it mean to make
something customers would
love?

49. designer
of experiences

50. yearning to
travel

51. no time, money, family
obligations… no travel

52. hey, free
Mandarin lessons

53. What does it mean to
experience another
culture?

54. explorer seeking experiences
to learn to see

55. incite yourself
set a trigger
book a date
say yes
announce it
jump in the deep end

56. beware the resistance
whispering (shouting) in your hero’s ear

58. fear of dragons kicks your lizard brain into high gear

59. a hero develops a growth mindset
I
I determine my world. I am responsible
for me. I can choose.
I statements allow me to be in control,
put the focus on my awareness, make me
jimmyharris flickr
independent, assume my ability to choose

60. a hero plays with assumptions
nattu flickr

61. a hero acts

62. if you let your lizard brain have it’s way, you convert
yourself from hero into victim needing saving
Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its
negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or "culture," the
subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and
becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a
wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless.
– Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
Lel4nd flickr

63. a victim has a fixed mindset
. they
The world happens to me. They are
responsible for... They prevent me from…
They statements assume power is in them,
put the focus outside myself, make me
dependent, assume my subordinance

64. a victim is chained by their assumptions

65. a victim reacts

66. Editors are not the enemy; critics are not the
enemy. Resistance is the enemy. The battle is
inside our own heads.
– Steven Pressfield, War of Art

68. Put this program into action, a thousand times:
a) identify the negative feelings in you;
b) understand that they are in you, not in the
world, not in external reality;
c) do not see them as an essential part of "I";
these things come and go;
d) understand that when you change, everything
changes.
– Anthony de Mello, Awareness

69. a hero’s quest is NOT a neatly plotted plan

70. by this point
in your life,
you
should…

71. controlling idea
I distrust plot for two reasons: first, because
our lives are largely plotless, even when you
add in all our reasonable precautions and
careful planning; and second, because I believe
plotting and the spontaneity of real creation
aren't compatible. A strong enough situation
renders the whole question of plot moot.
– Stephen King

72. clear
predictable
present
future
A B
step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5

73. planning assumes a predictable future based on past experiences
a capacity for prediction we don’t possess
seanmcgrath, flickr

74. life is messy

75. ?
?
unexpected obstacles will appear ?
?
?
assumptions may be wrong final destination is unclear
A ?

76. the hero learns, grows, and changes along
their journey, altering both the journey and
the final destination

77. since you can’t predict the future, you need to
prototype, play, experiment to learn
unpredictable
future
A fuzzy
goal
B
Gamestorming, Dave Gray

78. the only way I can get anything
written at all is to write really, really
shitty first drafts
– Anne Lamott

79. future story
(obit)
shitty first
drafts
A
B

80. great stories aren’t written according to a plan
Illustration by Kim Sokol

81. Doesn’t that sound neat, to implement a story, rather
than implement a plan? I don’t know about you but I
get tired of implementing plans. Plans always feel like
they keep you in a box. A story is something else. It’s
pulsing. It’s breathing. It’s alive!
– Madelyn Blair

82. pose what if questions
What if vampires invaded a small New England
village? Salem's Lot
What if I had only 37 days to let to live?
Life is a Verb, Patti Digh
What if ______________________

83. heroes learn to see
changing the world by becoming aware

84. CFO
how do I see this person?
NOT
seeing

85. I’ve got a thankless role with
the diciest risk/reward ratio of
any job short of a Navy Seal.
How will you
help me
make
money or
reduce costs?
seeing
How does this person see themselves and their situation? Todd Baker << technowannabe flickr

86. Large Plastic Bag
Grand Canyon
Mute Aleutian
Pretzel Man

87. This wasn’t
Large Plastic Bag
Grand Canyon Mute
Aleutian Pretzel Man
this was a real person with a name and
a history and stories that make him
laugh and cry. He was a who, not a
what, just like me. – Patti Digh
Say Hi to Yaron

88. when you’re listening or observing, pay
attention to how you’re reacting, what you’re
thinking, how you’re judging

89. If there’s a message
to my work, it is
ultimately that it’s
okay to be different,
that it’s good to be
different, that we
should question
ourselves before we
pass judgment on
someone who looks
different, behaves
different, talks
different, is a
different color.
– Johnny Depp

90. how do you learn to see? to find the story?
ask questions to understand

91. What do they
THINK & FEEL & FEAR?
what really counts
major preoccupations
worries &
aspirations
What do they What do they
HEAR? SEE?
boss environment
colleagues friends
influencers colleagues
friends what work offers
empathy (magic if) What do they
who are they? what if I were in their situation? SAY & DO?
attitude in public
appearance
behavior towards others
PAIN GAIN
fears | frustrations | obstacles wants/needs | measures of success | obstacles
www.gogamestorm.com

92. curiosity
why? why is it the way it is?
mikebaird flickr

93. play
explore the possible
Stuart Brown, Play is More than Fun

94. conversations
mixing different voices with your own
The family is shaped by the direction in which it points its conversation. It can focus on its
memories and basically keep on saying: “this is the way we are, this is what the different
members of the family have done and are doing.” Or it may treat itself as a base from which its
members set out to explore the outside world, and to which they return with something new to
say, so that conversation is constantly enriched by outside as well as inside happenings. We
become the prisoners of our families, our genes, our memories, only if we wish to be prisoners. It
is by conversations with others, by mixing different voices with our own, that we can turn our
individual life into an original work of art.
– Theodore Zeldin, Conversation

95. art
make objects that talk and then listen to them

96. experimentation
break boundaries and pursue unexplored
avenues of thought
-ilonQua- on Gosia Janik, flickr

97. experience the future
explore life as it might be
Patricia Moore, Experiencing the Future

98. asshole! (assumptions leads to judgment)
man in suit sitting in chair lines and relationships
(assumptions get in the way) (see past assumptions)
flip focus
change the frame to change the meaning mom? (flipping focus reframes meaning)
Asurroca, flickr

99. Open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before – that plant or leaf or
dandelion. Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel that you are
alone with it on Earth! That it is the most important thing in the universe, that it
contains all the riddle of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are
SEEING…
– The Zen of Seeing, by Frederick Franck
Neal, flickr

100. This power is in the focus. The act of observing, in
and of itself, makes a difference, in the material
world. Learning a new language, for example, is
relatively easy; it's just that you have to stop
paying attention to your current language to create
the new circuits.
– Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz

101. becoming aware is about learning to see past
our assumptions
our judgments
the lenses we use to frame the world

102. all authors need to heavily edit their work

103. Our experience quite literally is defined by our assumptions about life. We make
stories about the world and to a large degree live out their plots. What our lives
are like depends to great extent on the script we consciously, or more likely,
unconsciously, have adopted.
– Carol Pearson, The Hero Within

104. an edited backstory gives a more powerful
foundation for the future story
shinealight, flickr matzoball stambler, flickr Rex Pe, flickr
yearbook designer athlete teacher

105. if you’re not happy with your backstory, edit it
until it provides you with the emotional weight you
need to support you on your journey
Pink Sherbet Photography, flickr

106. If the writer reinvents character, he must
reinvent story. A changed character must make
new choices, take different actions, and live
another story – his story.
– Robert McKee

107. freewriting…
Remember back to [youth | last year…] to
a time when you were doing something fun or
exciting. Don’t think. Just write for 5 minutes
without taking your hands of the keyboard.

108. to wrap

109. When organizations, causes, brands or individuals
identify and develop a
core story,
they create and display authentic meaning and
purpose that others can believe in, participate with,
and share. This is the basis for cultural and social
change.
– Pamela Rutledge

110. each piece of art* you create along your
journey
enlarges your reality
enlarges the reality of your audience (calling their belief systems into question)
infuses itself into the myths that shape our understanding of the world
*podcast, blog post, tweet, story, presentation, meeting, infographic, conversation, workshop, garden…

111. that’s why Plato tried to have storytellers expelled
as dangerous people who wrap seductive, emotionally charged ideas in story

112. if you focus on your hero’s character
learning to see
& discover a controlling idea for your life story
purpose & meaning
the plot will write itself

113. the hero is already within you
stop waiting. start writing.

114. NOW
compound
interest
simple
interest

115. writer’s block?
just start!
(remember, shitty first drafts)

116. Treat it like an adventure. An adventure
worth sharing.
@gapingvoid
your life story

117. the hero is within you
by learning to see
you become author of your life story
you will encounter dragons
each dragon you slay creates meaningful change
to recap
with purpose powering you
you push forward on your quest
one shitty first draft at a time
you won’t be alone
because purpose attracts
creating change

118. The Hero with a Thousand Faces & The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell
Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge, Geoffrey Bellman
Your Brain at Work, David Rock
Story, Robert McKee
Art & Fear, David Bayles & Ted Orland
Life is a Verb, Patti Digh
The Story Factor, Annette Simmons
@gapingvoid
Tell to Win, Peter Gruber
credits Start with Why, Simon Sinek
The Power of Story, Jim Loehr
Awareness, Anthony De Mello
Stephen King, On Writing
Bird by Bird, Ann Lamott
Seth Godin, Linchpin
Switch, Dan & Chip Heath
Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely
Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander
Influencer: The Power to Change Everything, Kerry Patterson
First Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman
How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey

119. @joyce_hostyn
jhostyn@opentext.com
stay in touch slideshare.net/joyce_hostyn
joycehostyn.com/blog