One of the biggest challenges in storytelling is applying it to yourself. Roles at work for example are nothing more than single stories, and the character you play in those different stories can and does change over time and in different contexts

This is one of the main reasons I love combining storytelling with coaching in narrative coaching, it’s a lens everyone understands, and gives us the freedom to rewrite our own personal narratives.

This made me think of the time travelling Time Lord from Gallifrey, the Doctor. The TV series Doctor Who is reaching its 60th year, and back in the 60s when the original Doctor, William Hartwell decided to call it today, the creative team came up with an ingenious way to continue with the series and change the actor playing the Doctor – regeneration. It’s pure sci-fi, so full creative license allowed! The Doctor is an alien, when he dies, he simply regenerates into a different person. Problem of actor leaving solved 😊

This made me think of a TV quote from from the 11th Doctor (or 13th depending on your PoV), played by the wonderful Matt Smith, and links to the above point different roles and stories in our lives.

It’s at the end of the 11th Doctor’s life, just before he generates. I’m going to leave the complete speech and be indulgent because it’s a shame to cut it!

‘It all just disappears doesn’t it? Everything you are, gone in a moment like breath on a mirror.

Any moment now, he’s a coming, The Doctor and I always will be. But times change and so must I.

We all change, when you think about it. We are all different people all through our lives and that’s okay, that’s good you’ve got to keep moving so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.

I will not forget one line of this, not one day, I swear. I will always remember when The Doctor was me…”

We are different people throughout different parts of our lives, playing different roles in different stories, both our own stories and the stories of others. And as the Doctor says, keep moving forwards.