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Nature abhors a vacuum and so do we. Nature filled the original void with stars, planets and galaxies. When we encounter a gap in our knowledge, we tend to fill it with stories.

I’d like to tell you a story.  A psychologist decided he needed to learn some more about how his patient was thinking, so he chose to do an assessment using the Rorschach Ink blot test.

Years ago, mealtimes in many homes meant story time – retellings of work experiences, report cards and bargains. When friends, uncles and aunts came to visit and mealtimes were longer, there was more storytelling, gossiping and laughing.

Life presents an endless opportunity for rational choice to confront the weakness of will. This endless challenge defines and shapes us for better or worse. The essence of human behavior change resides at this nexus.

I had the good fortune to recently participate in the 2013 Sanford Health Cardiovascular Symposium in Sioux Falls, SD.  This is a good story that gets to the heart of health. Sanford Health is the largest rural health care provider in the United States.

I’m on-location in the Owens Valley, one of the most magnificent landscapes in the world. A good place to demonstrate how important perspective, memories and stories can be.

What do these concepts have in common? Prevention, compliance, marketing, sales, assertive communication, setting limits, and incentives. Look closely. The commonality may not be obvious because they are each associated with diverse areas of endeavor.

When you spend time in a Laundromat, as I have done for the last two years, one thing is immediately obvious: almost everyone there smokes, most are overweight, and many are eating junk food and drinking colas.

The last place you would probably expect to find a standup comedian would be in an Army uniform. But there I was for the better part of a decade, trying to make one of the most dangerous chapters of my life a laughing matter.

With the increasing interest in the use of narrative communication as a strategy for influencing health behavior, there has been an effort to develop standardized protocols for creating engaging stories and to determine the successful components of an effective story.