I’ve moved from working in a bank, to doing voluntary work with young people, to teaching, to communication training in a bank, to having my own small training company, and now to blogging and writing. Along the way I’ve picked up and used several skills including public speaking and life coaching. I’ve moved from working full time, to not working at all. Now I blog regularly and also work at the NGO I was a founder member of. Breathless, already? Let me share with you my reinvention story.
And that’s only as far as my work goes. I’ve made several changes in my beliefs and priorities too.
Yes, reinvention is a familiar event in my life. I’m sure you have reinvented yourself too. Most adults have done this.
Looking back I see a thread running through all of this – even when it seemed to people around me that I kept changing for the sake of change. The thread? A desire to inspire and empower people via ‘words‘, even as I have been inspired by others and their words.
It’s who we are that will determine what comes next – not just what we do ~ Marianne Williamson
So what have I learned in the process of reinventing myself? I would say that you need to keep these 7 ideas in mind before you being the process of reinvention:
Be clear about your motivations and reasons for change.
This is very important not just to keep you focused on the path of change but tackle the naysayers who will attempt to keep you from making this change.
Be willing to risk.
All change requires moving from the known and familiar to the unknown and sometimes scary future. Sometimes we need to reinvent ourselves because of life crises – an accident, losing a partner, a loss of job etc. In such cases, we have no choice – we just have to change. But when we make a conscious decision to make a change in our career, lifestyle, way of thinking, it’s often easy to want to run back to familiar, especially when things are not going well.
Be open to learning.
When I wanted to get into language training – I thought the fact that I spoke and wrote good English was enough to see me through. Very quickly, I learned that I had to learn phonetics, linguistics and how to teach grammar. I had to go back to school. Similarly, when I started blogging, I thought it was all pretty simple – I write, publish and someone reads and comments. Not so, I am constantly learning not just about writing but also the technical aspects of blogging.
Be willing to share.
When we share of our knowledge and time, we automatically open ourselves up to receive too. We may not get back from the person we helped, but certainly what goes around comes around. When we share our knowledge, we learn too.
Believe in the abundance of the Universe.
I have always been blessed with the generosity of people who were willing to share their knowledge and resources to help me reinvent myself.
Be aware of resistance and self-sabotage.
There will be ‘bad’ voices in our head telling us that we can’t do something. Or something with us will ‘force’ us to mess up a job, an event, etc. Steven Pressfield who wrote The War of Art describes this well.
When we can hear the voice in our heads that’s trying to distract us, deter us, derail us, and recognize it as Resistance–then it loses its power over us. We can see through it. We’re not going to believe its bullshit.
Be ready to fail.
While it is important to believe in oneself, we must also be prepared that everything will not be perfect. It might be that the timing for reinvention was off. It might be possible too that we didn’t fully anticipate all that was needed to undertake this process. However, if we need to learn to take things in our stride and find resources within to bounce back from failure.
“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
And it’s important that we keep smiling and laughing through the process of reinvention. So let me end with this story about an attempt to change:
A man goes to the doctor and says “Doctor, I’ve become a compulsive thief. Give me something to make me change.
The doctor prescribes him a course of medication and says, “If you’re not changed in a couple of weeks would you get me a home theatre?”
#FridayReflections
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Corinne as usual your inspirational posts motivate and support me whenever I’m at a crossroad. I think we are all reinventing ourselves all the time as we adapt to situations in our lives. What we cannot expect is success all the time and what we should have in abundant measure is patience and forebearance . I am grateful to the Universe for having your presence in my life . May you continue to do so.
This is so true! Yes we do need to change to grow. And sometimes it takes a painful experience to do that. But a beautiful transformation happens if we allow it.
I can totally co-relate with each and every emotions you had expressed in the post. from being a homeopathic therapist to now, a writer and a blogger, I had faced all challenges you had said. and I think the process of re-invention requires lots of passion and dedication, it is must a have a risk taking and keep on learning attitude. I am still struggling with the last part “have fun”, sometimes I just all the things too seriously, and forget to have a “take a chill pill” thing. thanks for sharing your inspiring story. I had felt by reading this that I am not alone in this journey.
I also believe reinventing is a part of growing in life. As we move on in life, our priorities changes and to cope up with that we must re-invent ourselves.
I am a silent reader of your blog. Having found it recently, I wonder why I didn’t land here earlier. I come here often for my dose of inspiration. Thank you for bringing out such soul satisfying posts