Imagined and possible selves: Stories we tell ourselves about ourselves

All of us create and share stories. This is something we start from a young age, in our earliest social interactions, and continue throughout our lives. One of the key stories that follows us over the course of that lifespan is the story we tell to ourselves: the story of the self. This story affects how we interpret our pasts, how we see ourselves now, and the paths we envision for our futures; ‘humans are storytelling organisms who, individually and socially, lead storied lives’ (Connelly and Clandinin, 1990: 2).