Oct 7, 2026 · 39 min · 8 segments
What if the story you tell yourself about your life is shaping who you become? In this episode, Dr. Gabby Caviedes and Anthony Alibro explore narrative identity and how the meaning we assign to our…
Anthony AlibroHost
Gabriela CaviedesHostYou know, it's, it's really who you are through the lens that you're, you're creating, right? And, uh, it's really shaped by all of our life experiences, but not only just the experiences, but your perception of those experiences and, and what you're telling yourself about yourself throughout those experiences.
As practitioners within the field of sport and performance psychology, we, I know myself and I know Gabby as well, we really heavily rely on this idea of cognitive behavioral theory, where effectively there are things that happen to us in our lives, and there are good things, there are challenging things, there are really neutral things as well.
But when we talk about what they mean and we make meaning of them, it's really our interpretation of those events that dictate, okay, like what, what is actually happening? Who am I becoming? How have I been transformed, so to speak? And we, we basically tie everything together into this coherent story, right? And as we look at, at our life, I'm looking at the 30 years that I've been on earth, which is crazy to say out loud, like everything that's happened up to this point is just like another chapter, and they continue to build off each other and build off of each other.
And really what's interesting about that is people with similar backgrounds, similar upbringing, similar stories, can have very, very different viewpoints on, hey, has my life just been defeat after defeat or has my life been just resilience opportunity after resilience opportunity? And really taking the opportunity to get punched in the face and then keep moving forward.
I mean, even think about, you know, I know I have siblings, I have two sisters, and we lived very similar upbringings, right? We were under the same roof, lived, you know, uh, with the same parents and had shared experiences, but we're very different, and the things we believe-
... about ourselves are very different, and it all comes down to what you're talking about, that web of, uh, belief that you're creating based off of the life you're living and, and the experiences you're having really does create a mentality of either defeat or, you know, belief.
And I mean, obviously, if you've listened to this podcast before, we talk all the time about, like, mindset.
We talk all the time about fixed and growth mindsets, and you can see how those events and how you responded to those events, and how they dictate your current lens and your current perspective on challenges and effort, and how you view other individuals too, significantly shaped by this idea of, hey, when I tell, when I introduce myself as Anthony, like, what, what is the story that I'm telling? What does it actually sound like? And it probably does include true events, but it's my spin on those true events too.
I will probably never be a volleyball player unless I'm, like, a setter, right? [laughs]
Uh, so I challenge our listeners to think about what are some of those stories or internal beliefs you hold, and ask yourself how did these come to be? How did these form? What were the experiences that shaped this story?
And I think it's worth for, for all the listeners out there, Gabby, to, to ask the question, to almost zoom out a bit and go, okay, like, when we talk about this idea of narrative identity, like what, and on s- in simple terms, what are we talking about here?
The clear-cut definition for narrative identity, right, from the literature is the internalized evolving story that you construct to make sense of your life.
Now let's break that down a little bit, right? Because that's all-encompassing.
You know, it's, it's really who you are through the lens that you're, you're creating, right? And, uh, it's really shaped by all of our life experiences, but not only just the experiences, but your perception of those experiences and, and what you're telling yourself about yourself throughout those experiences.
As practitioners within the field of sport and performance psychology, we, I know myself and I know Gabby as well, we really heavily rely on this idea of cognitive behavioral theory, where effectively there are things that happen to us in our lives, and there are good things, there are challenging things, there are really neutral things as well.
But when we talk about what they mean and we make meaning of them, it's really our interpretation of those events that dictate, okay, like what, what is actually happening? Who am I becoming? How have I been transformed, so to speak? And we, we basically tie everything together into this coherent story, right? And as we look at, at our life, I'm looking at the 30 years that I've been on earth, which is crazy to say out loud, like everything that's happened up to this point is just like another chapter, and they continue to build off each other and build off of each other.
And really what's interesting about that is people with similar backgrounds, similar upbringing, similar stories, can have very, very different viewpoints on, hey, has my life just been defeat after defeat or has my life been just resilience opportunity after resilience opportunity? And really taking the opportunity to get punched in the face and then keep moving forward.
I mean, even think about, you know, I know I have siblings, I have two sisters, and we lived very similar upbringings, right? We were under the same roof, lived, you know, uh, with the same parents and had shared experiences, but we're very different, and the things we believe-
... about ourselves are very different, and it all comes down to what you're talking about, that web of, uh, belief that you're creating based off of the life you're living and, and the experiences you're having really does create a mentality of either defeat or, you know, belief.
And I mean, obviously, if you've listened to this podcast before, we talk all the time about, like, mindset.
We talk all the time about fixed and growth mindsets, and you can see how those events and how you responded to those events, and how they dictate your current lens and your current perspective on challenges and effort, and how you view other individuals too, significantly shaped by this idea of, hey, when I tell, when I introduce myself as Anthony, like, what, what is the story that I'm telling? What does it actually sound like? And it probably does include true events, but it's my spin on those true events too.
I will probably never be a volleyball player unless I'm, like, a setter, right? [laughs]
Uh, so I challenge our listeners to think about what are some of those stories or internal beliefs you hold, and ask yourself how did these come to be? How did these form? What were the experiences that shaped this story?
And I think it's worth for, for all the listeners out there, Gabby, to, to ask the question, to almost zoom out a bit and go, okay, like, when we talk about this idea of narrative identity, like what, and on s- in simple terms, what are we talking about here?
The clear-cut definition for narrative identity, right, from the literature is the internalized evolving story that you construct to make sense of your life.
Now let's break that down a little bit, right? Because that's all-encompassing.
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