From Five Hours to Seven and Half Minutes

From Five Hours to Seven and Half Minutes

John Paul Derryebrry

Have you ever signed up to do one event that was a five-hour presentation over 5 days filled with a bunch of conversations in between and then four days later had to shrink the message down to 7 and a half minutes and share the stage with 6 other presenters? No, just me?! I knew it was going to be a stretching exercise for this storyteller. Yet, suppose we never challenge ourselves to stretch our views, messages, and beliefs in different venues and time frames with folks from various backgrounds. In that case, we will always find ourselves in an echo chamber, which is never good. 

Yet last week, the task in front of me allowed for a different thought process. The five-day session allowed time for exploration of thought, for building upon each session, leaving the message open for inquiry, and wandering with the stories and the audience in a way that allowed each talk to blend into the next. It reminded me of the importance of openness, imagination, and the negotiation of life. Some of the best moments often happen when we lose focus and daydream. 

I have lost count of the times the answer to a problem came when I was messing around in another area. The best thing about the 5-day leadership conference was the running joke that rules were meant to be broken. Which was a joke from a semi-truthful line from the first-day presentation that became the theme for the week. I did not see that coming, but the space, time, and conversations centered around this idea of what rules should be broken, bent, and followed. It was amazing and something that hadn’t happened before with a talk of mine. 20-plus years, and I’m still surprised by all this. 

Switching gears for Grand Views hosted by Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, and only having seven and a half minutes to present revealed the power of focusing. Cutting out all the fluff of a talk is never easy. I like my stories and my words. It feels like you are gutting the message, which will come through differently than you want. Yet, there is something magical in getting to the point, in selecting every word in such detail that this most succinct message emerges. Efficient, powerful, and laser-focused to the power, it hits homes. It is so forceful that it hits like a wave across the audience, and they have no choice but to soak in the words. 

In a world where it seems we are pulled in so many directions, and our focus is always split between screens, apps, people, and activities, it’s refreshing to be centered and focused on one thing. Clears the mind of the constant beating of inter-weaving thoughts, fear, and anxieties that some of us can cycle through. The clarity focus can bring is often something we can forget because we are so worried about missing something to settle into one thing and focus. 

It’s figuring out how to toggle between the two and learning when to focus and when to wander, ponder, and daydream. For this storyteller, I’m usually more fond of the latter; daydreaming and contemplating life keeps me open to new ideas and flexible and reminds me I’m not always right about stuff.  But shrinking from 5 hours to seven and a half minutes reminded me that focusing is a beautiful place to be from time to time. It brings out the best in us, forces all the daydreaming through a keyhole, and what comes out on the other side can be just as beautiful as that daydream.