Inner Light
Some Excavation Required
We all carried it once.
That spark of wonder.
That sense of awe.
That light inside us that didn’t need permission to shine.
As children, it was obvious. We drew, we built, we played, we experimented.
Some of us never lost it.
Others buried it under expectations, performance, and the machinery of growing up. But the light never goes away. It waits.
Bernard MacMahon, in his work directing Becoming Led Zeppelin, spoke about capturing the early flicker of genius in musicians before the world told them who they were supposed to be.
His process, painstaking research, rare interviews, and archival sounds, wasn’t about shortcuts. It was about devotion.
A commitment to uncovering the essence.
That’s what finding your inner light requires: deep work, not quick hacks.
NOW: The Light You’ve Misplaced
In Orbiting the Giant Hairball, Gordon MacKenzie writes about how our inner light, the artist inside us, is gradually dimmed by the systems we pass through.
School. Work. Culture. The incremental erosion of wonder.
And yet, if you’re honest, you still feel its glow.
That tug toward something more creative, more alive.
That voice that says: I could be more than what I’ve settled into.
But light doesn’t return through nostalgia. It returns through work.
The work of remembering, excavating, and honoring what you already carry.
Ask yourself:
~ Where did I first feel my light?
~ What systems or voices taught me to dim it?
~ What fragments of it still shine when I let them?
NEW: AI as Mirror, Not Shortcut
There’s a temptation to treat AI as a hack, an accelerator to produce faster, scale bigger, and automate more.
But that’s not where the real gift lies.
AI, if used with wonder, can help us rediscover what’s been buried.
It can stitch together fragments, archives, forgotten notes, or scattered memories and show us a mosaic we’ve overlooked.
It can act as a mirror, not to replace our light, but to reflect it back more clearly.
The key is intention. MacMahon didn’t cut corners making his film. He painstakingly layered authentic sound, interviews, and archives.
AI, when used the same way, can embellish and deepen your story, but only if you do the inner excavation first.
Ask yourself:
~ Am I using technology to bypass the work, or to deepen it?
~ How can AI help me resurface my own archives of experience?
~ What forgotten parts of me deserve to be brought back into the light?
NEXT: Becoming as Illumination
The Act of Becoming isn’t about performance. It’s about illumination.
Your ShiftStory™ is not what you’ve done. It’s the light you’re uncovering.
The leaders, creators, and artists who will thrive in this new era aren’t the ones chasing speed or scale.
They’re the ones who dig into the archives, who do the work, who surface something true from the fragments of their mosaic.
And when they share it, others see their own light reflected back.
THE PAYOFF: The Work of Light
In the Now, we name the light we misplaced.
In the New, we choose tools that help us recover it with integrity.
In the Next, we commit to becoming, not through shortcuts, but through deep, patient work.
To begin your excavation exercise:
Take one step this week toward your inner light.
Pull out an old sketchbook.
Revisit a forgotten journal.
Walk the corridors of your own archives. Use the tools at hand, AI included, not to rush, but to reveal.
Because the light is still there.
It’s waiting for you to do the work.
Or you could book a 24-minute Walk ‘n’ Talk with me, and I will help you get started.
“No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out of the darkness.”
— Bruce Lee
Your Call to Action
The act of illuminating your Inner Light requires.
A mirror.
And a map.
ShiftStory™ is both.
If you’re ready to stop editing yourself into boxes,
And start composing your story like the mosaic it is.
Not to reinvent. But to reassemble.
Learn more about the ShiftStory Pilgrimage and sign up here: https://shiftstory.co/
Given the intimate nature of this work, I will only be accepting only 5 more clients in this launch phase. I am pleased by the response thus far and am encouraged by the feedback received.
I’m Tobin Trevarthen. I am a Narratologist. I am a fusion of coach, mentor, and practitioner. My purpose is to enable you to shift your story from who you are to who you are becoming. Welcome to ShiftStory™.
ShiftStory™ is my evolved idea for building narrative agency in a rapidly changing world, where yesterday’s containers and approaches are no longer valid. I fundamentally believe we are entering a new Renaissance, and owning your story will become more paramount than ever before.
My ShiftStory™ is an intentional evolution: I am building a company and a life where relationships are consciously cultivated through reciprocity. Every connection is formed with purpose, and every decision is guided by mutual support and shared value.
My narrative is not just for those I serve; it is the story I am choosing to live, moving away from the pursuit of scale and toward a future defined by meaningful, reciprocal relationships.
Follow me on LinkedIn. DM at tobin@spatialshift.com or sign up for the ShiftStory™ here: https://shiftstory.co/