Storytelling for Change: The Two Monks and the Women

Craft your own rituals to accelerate the change you dream of

ONCE THERE WERE TWO MONKS WHO were traveling through the countryside during the rainy season. Rounding a bend in the path, they found a muddy stream blocking their way. Beside it stood a lovely woman dressed in flowing robes. ‘Here’, said one of the monks to the women. ‘Let me carry you across the water’. And he picked her up and carried her across. After setting her down on the far bank, he walked in silence with his fellow monk to the abbey on the hill. Later that evening the other monk suddenly, ‘I think you made an error when you picked up that woman on our journey today. You know we are not supposed to have anything to do with women, and you held one close to you! You should not have done that.’ ‘How strange’, remarked the other. ‘I carried her only across the water. You are carrying her still’.*

Change -individual or organizational change- or new chapters in your life, will not start while you still carry with you old habits, ideas, or attitudes. New beginnings are only possible when you intentionally make room for new chapters in your story. The same way that trees let their yellow leaves fall so that new green ones can grow, you have to let go of former views about yourself, your company, or your brand to facilitate the…