Don't walk the line

What stories from your past explain your present?

Every morning at 10am, the school bell rang and the children were herded out into the schoolyard.

Hail, rain or shine.

There was a big white circle painted on the concrete in the middle of the schoolyard and the kids were forced to walk around this circle for 20 minutes.

That was their morning exercise routine.

While they walked round and round the circle, the teachers hovered like hawks.

If a child stopped walking or stepped out of line, a teacher would yell at them to get back in line.

To walk the line.

This was the introduction to one of the most memorable stories I’ve heard as a storytelling consultant.

My client grew up in Dresden in East Germany where life was very structured. It was like growing up in an army boot camp, she told me. In her early 20s she finally had enough of being told what to do and when to do it.

She escaped her old life and ran away to start a new one. Twenty years later I met her in New Zealand where she told me the story of the white circle in the schoolyard. 

When she finished her story, I asked her if she’d ever told it before in a professional capacity.

 "Of course not," she said. "It’s just a random story from my childhood."

I explained to her that it was more than a story, that it was a powerful visual image she could use to explain what she did for her clients. Because she does the opposite of that schoolyard exercise. She works as a coach and motivational speaker to help people see the challenges and tragedies in their lives as opportunities.

Suicide, physical abuse, and the tragic death of her second husband are just some of the things she’s had to cope with in her life. But she’s refused to be defined or defeated by the bad things that happened to her.

Today, she inspires change in the people she works with. People who have hit rock bottom in their lives. People who feel lost and worthless including prisoners preparing for life on the outside.

She encourages her clients to get off the treadmill on the road to nowhere. To think outside the box. To step off the circle. And after sharing her ‘Walk the Line’ story with me for the first time, she started using it as the introduction to her speeches and presentations.

So many of us spend our lives walking in a circle but the people who live the most interesting lives are the people who don’t walk the line, who follow their own path. That takes courage. 

What’s the white circle in your life?
What stories are holding you back?
And what will you do to change your story and tell a better one?