Telling More Stories

There are some mornings when you wake up feeling pumped. Right now it’s 6:08 AM and I’ve already been awake for two and a half hours. It’s one of the first days of “fall” in Austin and I’m ready for a little dawn patrol on the river but instead I’m stuck inside.

On a normal weekend I would have just parked the Jeep and started to blow up the paddle board while sipping chai out of my favorite camp mug, but instead it’s raining today. Still not a bad morning.

My river bag is sitting on the ground next to me, all of the supplies strewn across the floor. All I can think about is how much I want to stick my feet in the water, hear the birds chirp, and feel the warm sensation of the sunrise on my skin. Based on the current weather reflectivity charts that would be an extremely poor decision, and probably not even possible. But I just want to ignore it and go.

When I get into mindsets like this where all I want to do is be stupid and play in the bad weather, it’s not because I’m irresponsible, it’s because I know how much fun it would be to watch my co-workers thinking I’m insane as I tell them about it on Monday morning. I know it would make a great story.

To me the best stories, whether told by brands or from a personal point of view are always inspiring. They get others to say “Wow, I wish I was doing that right now.” It’s a powerful thing to be able to inspire action in others. Even if it’s as simple as getting someone to say to their friends next weekend “Hey let’s go paddle boarding instead of out drinking!”