Never be forgettable again

If there’s one thing that is the bane of every beginner’s existence, it’s oversubscription.

Don’t believe me? Ok…

Open your inbox. Tell me how many emails you’ve opened/read/ignored/deleted. Tell me you have a clear inbox at least 50% of the time. Tell me you’ve actually read most of them…

At least you’re reading mine (thank you, thank you, thank you!)

Just trolling through it can demolish the temple that is your presence and your attention span down to the foundations and salt the ground so that not even weeds grow there.

I’m guilty of this as well. During the first two years of this process, I was the cheap date who only needed the smallest hope that what was offered would catapult me to greatness without too much effort. I fell for countless pitches on the hellscape media platform that has replaced the birdy app.

Since then I’ve separated the wheat from the chaff, the cream from the crop, the head from the beer glass, and let me tell you, those that were allowed to remain in my inbox all have this thing in common:

They all wield analogies like a chisel, sculpting the paths of their thoughts into pieces of art for their readers. They’re storytelling skills are peerless, and their lessons are simple and straightforward.

Analogies are the spice of the storytelling dish.

Want readers to remember your message?

Here’s how you can get started weaving them together.

Analogies are seeds

You can use analogies as the Christmas tree. All you have to do is get the lights and the decorations together.

When you get good at it, you’ll even have the room complement what you’ve done with it.

These powerful tools can be used to construct a mini-narrative: a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

For example: “Skill mastery is like planting a bamboo tree - it start slow, never showing significant results while the roots grow deep. Only when the time is right does it shoot into the sky.”

From this analogy, you can see how you can continue to expand on the idea to illuminate other aspects of learning. If you recall from earlier, this particular one falls into the category of using natural processes and can be used to teach the power of patience, perseverance, and determination in the face of challenges.

Here are a few other examples:

• Your identity is a tree - the roots take in all the content that you’ve consumed throughout your life from various sources that are the trunk of your beliefs and values. The fruit that it bears are what you create and produce over your lifetime.

• Capacitors are parking lots - its potential to hold cars depends on the size of the lot. During peak business hours, these lots can fill with cars until there is no more room. When the building shuts down for the day, the cars leave.

• Doing stand-up comedy is like playing Tetris - you build up all the elements around the punchlines before delivery in one swift, well-timed delivery and do it repeatedly to entertain the audience.

Each of these examples contain mini-narratives; the bones upon which you can flesh the details out for different aspects to expand upon. The first example is one that is the foundation of this newsletter. The second is the foundation of my career as a test engineer. The third is how I navigate the world in real life with endless deliver of dad jokes (sorry, not sorry).

What about you?

So far, I’ve discussed various aspects and approaches for how to get your mind in gear for thinking analogously. The truth is that it’s meant to expand your thinking laterally as well as vertically. Everything is related to everything else, and the sharpest thinking results from understanding the grey areas between the absolutes we’re taught to believe.

Think about some of your favorite analogies that you’ve heard of and have used for yourself and expand them into mini-narratives. You never know when they’ll come in handy.

Remember: facts are mental floss, but people never forget a good story.