Being a Living Mosaic
Life is Not a Straight Line
We have been telling the wrong kind of story.
Linear. Tidy.
Chronological. Chronically undersold.
We have been reduced to bios, boiled down to resumes, compressed into bullet points, and LinkedIn summaries.
These are not expressions of identity.
They are soundbites right-sized to fit in containers of the past.
But here’s the truth: we are not linear. We are living mosaics.
And the future, the near future, isn’t about fitting into frameworks.
It’s about breaking the grid.
NOW: The Limits of Linearity
You are not your job history.
You are not your headline.
You are not your professional pitch.
And yet…
We still lead with what fits in the box.
We still speak in templates.
We still format our lives to be digested, not felt.
Why? Because it’s easier.
But easier isn’t truer.
Each of us is composed of fragments, some visible, some still being found.
Skills. Stories. Scars. Sparks.
We are layered. Fluid. Multipotential.
And until we stop reducing ourselves to career breadcrumbs,
We’ll never step into our Narrative Worth, the full, dimensional value of who we are becoming.
Ask yourself:
~ Where have you conformed to linear storytelling just to be legible?
~ What parts of your mosaic have been left out… or left behind?
NEW: Reframing Self-Expression as Spatial
In the coming era, self-expression will no longer be confined to page, paper, or profile.
It will be spatial.
It will be immersive, dimensional, and alive.
AI isn’t just a threat to our identity, it’s an opportunity to reinvent it.
To step out of the static and into the spatial.
To express who we are not through bullet points, but through curated layers of experience, memory, curiosity, and potential.
This is what a Narrative Mosaic is designed to do:
Not to capture you, but to compose you.
To piece together the disjointed edges of your story, fragments that once looked like flaws, and render them into something resonant.
This is how we reclaim self-expression:
Not by simplifying.
But by embracing our complexity.
Ask yourself:
~ If you didn’t have to follow the rules of resumes, what would you reveal?
~ What would your life look like spatially, as a gallery, an installation, an unfolding map?
NEXT: Becoming a Living Mosaic
The future is not chronological.
It’s collaged.
Built from intuition, adaptation, and the art of seeing yourself not as a brand, but as a living, expressive system.
We are entering an age where narrative is not delivered, but designed.
Where identity isn’t summarized, but spatialized.
Where meaning isn’t linear, but layered.
You are a living mosaic.
Not a container. Not a category.
Not a copy of yesterday’s self.
This is what ShiftStory was built for:
To move you out of outdated containers
and into a living expression of your past, present, and next becoming.
Ask yourself:
~ What version of yourself are you ready to bring into the room, unformatted, unfiltered, and unmissable?
~ Are you willing to stop presenting and start expressing?
THE PAYOFF: You Are Not a Resume
In the Now, we see the ways we’ve been taught to flatten ourselves.
In the New, we step out of the template and into truth.
In the Next, we live as living mosaics, fluid, vivid, expressive, and whole.
So here’s your challenge:
Ditch the linear. Embrace the layered.
Let your story breathe.
Let your contradictions show.
Let your soul interrupt your summary.
The next era isn’t about what you’ve done.
It’s about what you express.
And how deeply it resonates.
Welcome to the art of being fully seen.
Because you are a Living Mosaic.
"For ages, happiness has been represented as a huge, precious stone, impossible to find, which people seek for hopelessly. It is not so; happiness is a mosaic, composed of a thousand little stones, which separately and of themselves have little value, but which united with art form a graceful design." ~ Delphine de Girardin (a mosaicist)
I’m Tobin Trevarthen, a Narratologist, founder of Spatial Shift by Tobin, and co-author of Narrative Generation.
I spent decades in the corporate and start-up worlds, selling over $1 billion in marketing programs before shifting into narrative work designed to help people and organizations make sense of transformation through storytelling.
I’ve worked with founders, executives, startups, Global 1000 companies, and cultural institutions to design narrative frameworks that spark clarity and alignment.
Now New Next is where I reflect on the long game, with a sense of urgency. I write for modern elders, edge thinkers, and curious builders trying to name what matters now, what’s emerging, and what’s worth pursuing next.
You’ll find no hype here. Just a mix of strategy, story, and soulful direction for a shifting world. I also write about narrative worth, identity, and the art of sensing what’s unsaid.
Let’s walk the edge—together.
ShiftStory™ is my new ideation for building narrative agency in uncertain times. The pilot Walk n Talks have helped to shape the program now in progress with a few test customers.
I am pleased with the early feedback and will be launching the beta program this summer. It will be limited to 10 participants in the first cohort.
Follow me on LinkedIn. Or DM at tobin@spatialshift.com for more information.
Join my success roster of Global 1000 companies, Senior Executives, and Emerging Movements.