Telling the story well.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Some people are natural storytellers. It is like breathing. They draw you in and you are with them until the very end of the telling. Some people are really good at this. Others are not. But, that shouldn’t stop you from telling a story worth hearing. Especially if it is one that you have lived.

The trick is knowing which details to include and which to omit. If you watch the best storytellers, they don’t bombard you with meaningless or trivial details. Every reference they make, every word of the story is driving to the climax and resolution. There is very little useless filler. Very little rabbit chasing (which I, unfortunately, am prone to from time to time!).

How is this accomplished? Here are a few ways to prepare your story for the telling:

1. List out the important details of the story on paper. (If it is a story worth telling more than once, you might as well write it down and solidify it in your mind.)

2. Keep it fairly short. Take enough time to include all of the important details, but remember that the average attention span is not so….hey look! Theres a squirrel. You get my point. We have all sat in on a person recounting a story that should have lasted 2 minutes and lasted 20. Don’t do that.

3. Even though the story might be about you, invite your listeners in and make it feel like they were a part of it as well. Ask questions about the emotions involved in the story. Engage them in the telling. Make it a group experience and not just a way for you to show off.

While storytelling doesn’t come naturally to some, it is something that can be learned. We all have experiences that are worth the telling. Yes. It is true. You have a story worth telling. With a little bit of practice you can learn to tell it well and people will benefit from it.

Get me out of this rut.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and thought, “Wow, it feels like no time has gone by at all”? I had one of these not too long ago. I hadn’t seen them in many years, but we picked back up into conversations that we had long ago. The same types of coversations anyway. They spent time telling me about life and I instinctively knew how to respond. It felt weird. They were just as I remembered. Very little had changed.

I have thought about this a lot. How much different am I now compared to then? Have I really changed all that much? In a word? Yes. I am very different than I was even 5 years ago. I spent a lot of time stuck in ruts over the years. I have learned from many of them. I don’t want to go back to them. I am very different, because I have chosen to be.

What is the old quote? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. The bad thing is this: most of the time we don’t realize we are doing the same thing over and over. When you are stuck in the rut, often times you don’t know you are stuck at all. You just think life is hard, or out to get you, or that it isn’t fair. We may even realize we are in a rut, but we stay on autopilot and keep doing the same things. Years go by and we are still there and don’t know why.

Here are 3 things to think about when facing a rut:

1. How long has it been since you have done something completely new? Do you drive the same way to work everyday? Do you eat the same things every week? Do you have the same conversations over and over? If you answered yes on any of these things, pick one new thing to do this week.

2. What are you putting into your mind? Are you reading and engaging your mind with positive uplifitng material? Or, do you veg out in front of the TV every spare minute? What you put in is what comes out.

3. Do you find yourself complaining about the same things over and over? Maybe it is time to ask yourself this question: What really is the problem? Talking about the problem seems so much easier than doing the work of solving the problem, but wouldn’t it be better to address the complaints now before any more time goes by?

What have you done when you have found yourself in a rut? How hard was it to escape?

Snow day, what a wonderful day.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

We had a snow day today. I live in Oklahoma. Snow and Oklahoma and not usually friends. They have been making up for lost time over the last day. There is a 4 foot snow drift on my back porch. My poor dogs can even get into the back yard to do go…you know. (My daschund will hardly step foot out the back door.) It is 8 degrees outside my window right now (it was 72 just 3 days ago…what is up with that?).

It has been a great day. I have a clean office for the first time in a while (thank you Marixa for helping me get this done.) I got to be creatvie in the kitchen this evening. I took my first stab at home made Mac and Cheese. (Still a work in progress.) The best part of the day though was I had to slow down. And I did. I spent the day soaking up being here with Marixa and Trey. That is priceless.

There are not many days that come along where I have to stay home and there is nothing going on. Today was one of those days. I feel plugged into my family. It is a good feeling. One I need to cultivate on more than just snow days.

I hope, wherever you are, you are safe and warm.

Dare mighty things.

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

It is  time. I have to escape. My enemy leaves me alone if I say nothing, but this leaves me a prisoner. The only way out is through. The door is open. Now is my chance. I don’t know which direction to take. I can hear the sounds of freedom, but I am confused. I am so turned around I don’t know north from south. But, I am determined. It would be better to die fighting for my freedom than to rot where I am. The first thing is to get up. They may not notice if I go slowly, but what if they do? On my feet, out of the cell door, I look to my left and right. There has to be a clue…and there it is, a footprint. Was another here before me? Is the path laid out and I am just seeing it? I take it. My legs are tired, but I take the first step and I feel life returning to them. My lungs take in the free air. A sword and shield lay feet away. I take them. As I grasp the hilt a pulse shoots down my arm. My limbs begin to remember something my brain is having trouble making out. I am a warrior. I have purpose. How long have I been hidden away? The first step was finding the path, and as I make my way I start to remember who I really am. How much time has been wasted?


From time to time, when I have extra moments, I like to use the notes application on my iPhone to jot down ideas and write short passages. The words above are from one of those writing exercises. But, what does it all mean?

I find myself a prisoner sometimes. Not by force, but by choice…or lack of choices. There are decisions to be made and life to be lived, but things don’t go as I have planned or things are harder than I expected and  I choose the path of fear and I completely shut down. (Is this just me or does anyone else do this too?) Fear can be a crippling enemy, but does it have to be? I don’t think so.

What really gets me are the what ifs. You know the what ifs right? What if I am not good enough? What if she doesn’t like me? What if he says no? What if she leaves me? What if I lose my job? What if? What if? What if? What good do they really do? They can leave you paralyzed if you let them. I know they have me from time to time.

I think the solution is to take the what if to their natural end. For example: What if I lose my job? We would have to use our savings and that would not last long. I would have bills to pay and obligations to meet. If I were unable to find another job I might be dragged into financial ruin. Times would be tough. I would lose some sleep. But is this really the end? No. This won’t kill me. (Might lose more of my hair and the rest might go quickly grey.) I would still have my family. My wife and my son would still love me. We would work through things. There would be happy times again.

Like the story above, there has to come a point when you realize the pain of staying is greater than the pain of going. You can no longer be a prisoner. Once you get moving, the excuses and the what ifs tend to fall away and you begin to accomplish. You remember who you are and what you are capable of. I think the most important this is standing up and giving it your best shot. I would much rather do that that live imprisioned by my own fears. Even if I fail, I want to know that I have tried. The following quote is one of my favorite on the subject:

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt

What goal are you trying to accomplish this year? What fears keep getting in the way? Keep going. Keep moving forward. Dare mighty things…who knows? You just might get them done.

Cupcakes! Cupcakes! Oh yeah, Cupcakes!

~ David Willis ~ Leave a comment

Now that I have your attention, I would like to have a very serious discussion about something near and dear to my heart: cupcakes. Ok, maybe near and dear to my tastebuds, but you get the picture. It almost doesn’t matter what flavor, as long as the cake is moist and the icing is sweet I want one. I have something to admit, I am not very good at making them…yet.

I have been working at perfecting my skill in this area. I can make a pretty decent cake right now. It is moist and spongy, but I am still very early in my learnings. I have been watching many of the shows on the Food Network (namely Cupcake Wars) and I am amazed at all of the different recipies that people come up with. It is truly an art form mixed with a bit of chemistry. Baking really is the crossroads of science and art. You must be precise with your ingredients and the conditions, or your cakes will not turn out the same way every time.

This is where I still have much study to do. I have experimented with using different wet ingredients in the cakes. One batch I used Grand Marnier, another some spiced rum, and another some blackberry wine. It hasn’t really done what I have wanted it to do. It gives the cakes a moist texture, but it doesn’t enhance the flavor as much as I have been hoping.

So, the journey continues. Here are a couple of things I have learned as I have been making cakes the last couple of weeks:

1. Using the food processor is a very good way to mix the batter.

2. Old fashion paper cups are still a good way to go. I tried some silicon cups. Eh…no thanks. I am going to stick with the paper.

3. I am going to have to start taking cakes to work if I intend to keep practicing. Holy cow…I could gain 20 pounds in a hurry with this experiment! But, I don’t like not being good at something I want to do. It irks me. So, I will have to practice, practice, practice.

4. Strawberry sauces can taste just as good over a cupcake as icing. Yes it is true!

Do you have a good recipe that you could share? Here is the one I have been using lately as my basic recipe (thank you Food Network!). What tips and tricks have you learned?