The man behind over 6000 personal story interviews
A Filmmaker Philosopher "Cinematologist" Storyteller Writer Speaker Listener
Rick Stevenson has introduced Personal Story Mentoring and verbal journaling as a means of helping individuals unlock their “Emotional Immune Systems” worldwide.
Through The 5000 Days Project and the StoryQ Method of inquiry, he is on a mission to help create a generation of self-empowered game-changers who realize that the choices they make every moment of every day can help them become exactly who they wish to be.
Rick and the origins of The 5000 Days Project
It is impossible to conduct so many interviews without a lot of listening and learning. Rick now feels privileged to share the knowledge he has learned in order to help audiences better understand themselves and the world around them.
His central discovery? You own nothing more valuable than your own story. By learning to fully understand and apply it, we can put our most valuable asset to work, improving our own lives and the lives of others.
Contrary to popular belief, stories are not about nursery rhymes and airy-fairy ideas. They are about hard currency and human connection. Rick believes we can learn no more important skill than storytelling because it is the foundation of all human communication.
All of Rick’s projects (The 5000 Days Project, StoryQ, Prodigy Camp) are dedicated to developing the healing and transformative properties of stories in our lives— especially our own stories.
Rick is on a mission to help individuals unlock the power of their own personal story and discover that they can in fact be the authors of their own lives.
Learn more about Rick, his mission, and the journey from Harold and the Purple Crayon to Hollywood and on to start a guided video journaling movement working with personal stories around the world.
21 Things You Forgot About Being a Kid
a partial guide to better understanding our children and ourselves
NOW AVAILABLE IN HARDCOVER, AUDIOBOOK & E-BOOK!
“Know Thyself”
Beyond love, shelter, food and security, perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give a child is a sense of emotional awareness. Even as adults we recognize and yet can still struggle with the puzzling psychological, familial and instinctive forces that influence our choices and ultimately the course of our lives.
We are all acutely aware of the increasing rates of mental health problems in our younger generation and the fact that a half of all adult mental health problems begin before the age of 14. We are also aware that for schools to provide an opportunity for every child to verbalize, explore, and process their values, feelings, fears, and dreams is not possible due to limited time and support resources.
Yet individual focus is more important than ever before. Personal reflection being at an all-time low + the addictive draw of social media = vanishing solitary moments to process. The positive impact for children if they could respond to self-analytical questions at the least self-analytical time of their lives… They could process all that was happening to them in a much healthier way.
After years of interviewing kids K-12 growing up through my 5000 Days Project, we have developed verbal journaling and a personal story mentoring program to encourage kids to explore their feelings, values, fears, and dreams using the power of personal, authentic storytelling. As participants explore who they are and what they are experiencing in a safe, no-judgment space, the transformative wisdom of Socrates' "Know Thyself" is realized in real time.
I believe that kids have within themselves the keys to unlocking their own future in the face of myriad external pressures and expectations. I believe that kids are their own best authors of their lives, and that learning to tell their own stories as they run the gauntlet of adolescence is a vital means of helping kids find themselves before they lose themselves.
