This Space Between Stories

A few years ago a bad day turned into a bad week and by the following Monday I was gripped by an overwhelming inertia that swept me clean off my feet and straight back under the duvet.

I’d not felt this mentally low for a long, long time.

Right, I thought. I either have to book a doctor’s appointment, book a therapy session or… trust that life will work its magic and guide me somehow.

No sooner had I said it, than a picture of my Kindle popped into my head.

OK. I thought. Let’s trust this.

I picked it up, flicked through my library and my attention zoomed straight in on a book I’d abandoned six months earlier.

To give you a bit of context, over the previous six months I’d started to morph away from my professional identity as a copywriter and towards a new one… as a brand storyteller.

The only trouble was, I was having trouble making that step. Imposter syndrome had well and truly set in. Who was I to declare myself a storyteller?

Anyway, the book in question was The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein. I couldn’t remember why I’d stopped reading it. But, when I picked up where I’d left off, on the very next page – the VERY NEXT PAGE – he began talking about framing our world in story.

WTAF!!!

He continued, if we want to change society and solve some of the biggest crisis’ we face, things like climate change, poverty and inequality, we would need to change ‘the story of the people’.

The hairs on my neck stood on end.

Stories. Storytelling. The very thing I’d been avoiding (sh** scared of).

The Space Between Stories

A few pages later, up popped a phenomenon called ‘the Space Between Stories’.

Now, this is something I have become extremely familiar with. From this first time when I experienced it for myself. Then watching my clients experience it too.

Eisenstein describes it as that time when we’ve stepped out of an old story but have yet to step into a new one. And in this space you’ll experience many different emotions: fear, excitement, frustration, exhilaration, hopelessness, anger, joy… you get the idea.

But, he says, the trick is to simply allow yourself to be there.

Just.

Allow.

It.

Because when you try and push against it you’ll repress it and depress it. Just as I’d been doing.

Then he said something that changed everything.

‘Always remember that the space between stories is a sacred space.’

BOOM.

As I read those words everything I’d been experiencing lifted. Everything. And I was finally ready to embrace and step into my new story, which was to become Brand New Story.

This Space Between Stories

The last few months have been tough. More so for some than others. Life as we’ve known it has ground to a halt.

We have stepped out of an old or existing story of society and now experiencing that space between stories.

And we have a choice. Do we carry on living within the confines of those old societal stories or do we create new, better ones?

It’s a conversation many people are having.

An opportunity to evolve (my story)

This time of pause has been a gift for Brand New Story. Giving my company the time to re-discover what it stands for.

I spent the first month or so in lockdown working on a new story for Brand New Story and as a result the company has stepped into a powerful new purpose.

It still scares me a little when I declare it.

Because I/we want to evolve the existing story of branding – from one that breeds ego-driven organisations, who are the heroes of their own story – to one that champions conscious brands who put their customers at the heart of everything they do: simply by making them the heroes of the story.

Imagine a society brimming with conscious, authentic brands who value people and planet, as well as profit.

An opportunity to evolve (your story)

What about you and your organisation? What story are you seeking to evolve? Do you even know what it is? How is the Space Between Stories showing up for your organisation, its people and customers?

There has never been a better time to create a new story of how you want the world to become.

Yes… the world needs your story alright… and, I’m guessing, so do you.