Creating the New You
"Reinvention" implies a process of deconstruction, a subsequent reconstruction, and a resultant new thing. Reinventing yourself ideally results from a candid examination of your life and a determination to improve it by taking positive action leading to your new goals—whether a better job, happier work-life balance, or a healthier lifestyle. Changing yourself superficially as a reaction to circumstances, such as undergoing plastic surgery or buying new clothes and a flashy car, will not get to the root dissatisfactions in your life. Cheryl Simpson believes that there are five key steps to a true personal reinvention: taking an honest inventory of who you are, clarifying your values, identifying your aspirations and passions, brainstorming prospects, and marketing yourself successfully. If you feel that it's time for you to begin your life anew, keep in mind that others have done the same thing, successfully, and that you need to keep your focus on how to reinvent yourself so that it's neither cosmetic nor temporary.
Changing jobs can be a terrific way to begin a major personal transition. Before you decide where you should be working, do a thorough audit of what it is you are seeking in your career. First of all, think about jobs you would like to do and whether you have the skills to undertake them. If you aren't sure what a different job entails, ask if you can speak to someone in that field to get insight into that position and career. Use printed and online resources to find out additional information. If more training or experience will be needed to enter that field, talk to the human resources department to find out if your company offers that training or where it is available. Broach the subject in a positive way with your line manager, focusing on your desire to improve rather than on feeling stuck.
A wealth of advice is available in books and online about writing a résumé. These sources will give you insight into identifying transferable work skills and activities in your personal life that are relevant to your desired role. Do some research and draft a new résumé based on what you've learned. Ask a good friend for his or her reaction to the new document.
Don't be afraid to share your passions and aspirations with your prospective employers—this will help them see past any omissions in your previous experience. Remember that passion for a role is very attractive to recruiters; just think about how many uninspiring (and uninspired!) applications they have to sift through every day.
Values are strong personal beliefs that aren't up for negotiation. You may be able to appear to take on values that aren't your own, but, under pressure, your values will reassert themselves. You will be a misfit in the company and uncomfortable with yourself. It's much better to look elsewhere for a new job where your values are shared.
For many people, the planned career path takes unplanned twists and turns. One often hears people describe how they decided what they wanted when they left school, followed the recommended route to get there, and now are dissatisfied at what they've ended up doing.
The pressures of modern life drive us toward making choices that bring an illusion of security, status, and success. We find a "good job" and are sucked into the promotional slipstream while being paid an increasingly large salary as we advance in the company. At the same time, the accompanying benefits, such as health care and company pension plans, make us reluctant to change our lives radically. Once we realize we're unhappy, we try to rationalize our way out of it, convincing ourselves that we've invested too much in our employing organization and our careers to risk starting again at the beginning. So we struggle on, perhaps resentfully, fantasizing about how it could have been. Sometimes, we're "fortunate" enough to be assisted in overcoming our resistance to change. We're laid off, we suffer ill health, our family circumstances change, a significant relationship comes to an end, and so on. This external trigger often results in personal reinvention and is often perceived to be a blessing in the long run.
The challenge for most people is to arrive at the decision to make adjustments in their lives before such a dramatic catalyst intervenes. Being able to sense the imbalance in your life, the drawbacks of your current job, and the gulf between who you are and who you would like to be is key to making meaningful personal changes. Once you decide to reinvent yourself, it's important to keep in mind, as Jane Herman says, that it's an "inside job": "Reinvention is an inside job—meaning that it is the changes we make on the inside that create the most powerful and long-lasting differences in our lives."
Below is a series of steps that may help you through the reinvention process.
Assess your life from a personal and professional perspective. Write your name in the center of a blank sheet of paper, and itemize your life's pressures and disappointments on the left and the pleasures and delights on the right. Write down everything you think is relevant, including the interests and aspirations that you had early in your career and all the things that have given you happiness since then. Highlight the "break points" on both sides of the analysis so that you can easily identify issues that really need to be addressed. The intention here is to find a way of swinging the balance of your life toward the pleasurable side of the diagram by drawing out the elements of your life that characterize you and your preferred role.
Think about what you'd do if you were free from practical or financial limitations and write everything down at the top of your sheet of paper. This is a freeing exercise that may put you in touch with what it is you would prefer to be doing. Don't censor your ideas or cast them aside on the basis that you don't have enough money or security to achieve them.
At the bottom of the page, write down things that are preventing you from the full enjoyment of your professional and personal life. These are the barriers that you must overcome in order to achieve a satisfactory reinvention. They usually manifest as fears, for example: "I will lose my pension/benefits/financial security," "I have dependents and can't risk letting them down," "I have major financial commitments and won't be able to meet these if I change my job," or "I can't afford to start something from the beginning at this stage of my career." You hold each of these fears without question. So question them. Are they really true? Do they really matter? If you allow your life to be governed by your fears, how will you feel at the end of your career? Is this acceptable to you?
Now that you've done the thinking, you can start making changes. Working through the process above has allowed you to see your life objectively and should help you pinpoint areas that need the most attention. If you have a strong feeling about the need to change something, don't try to reason your way out of it: Follow your instincts and see what happens. If you curb your impulses by rationalizing them, you'll end up behaving same way time and time again. To others, and indeed to yourself on some levels, your actions may not seem reasonable, but many people have benefited from taking a risk at points in their life. "Act first and reflect later" has probably been the pattern of your career to date, so try something new, see if it works, then adopt or discard your initiative as appropriate.
Deciding to change, but not acting on your decision, will not alter your situation. Even if the changes seem alien to you to begin with, practice them until they feel normal. Once you start behaving like the person you want to be, people will start treating you as if you are that person. You cannot change your life without changing your behavior patterns.
You'll see that reinvention isn't really what's going on here. The effect is reinvention; the fact is that you're bringing to the surface a latent part of your character that seeks full and happy expression. Make the decision to live the way you want to fully and without apology.
Some people decide to make radical changes in their lives and jump into a reinvention without thinking through what is actually required. This only leads to disappointment. Enthusiasm is vital for any attempt at personal change, but it needs to be balanced with considered decisions and a deep understanding of yourself. Without these, you'll make changes that don't last and end up feeling disillusioned and de-energized. Work through the process above and ask a trusted friend to help you if you feel you're not making progress.
Changing behaviors takes time, and it's common to backslide into your old ways. Focus on the positive actions you are taking, not your failures. Determine each day to do the best you can, and remind yourself throughout the day how your new behaviors will help you reach your goals.
Chandler, Steve.
The Reinvention Institute: http://reinvention-institute.com/resources/index.htm
"10 Principles of Career Reinvention," summary of an article by Pamela Mitchell of the Reinvention Institute, SmartLemming.com: http://smartlemming.com/blog/index.php/2007/01/10-principles-of-career-reinvention
"Reinventing Yourself Isn't An Option for Everyone" by Bernadette Kenny, True Careers: www.truecareers.com/jobseeker/careerresources/careerarticles/reinvent.shtml
"Succeed After a Layoff By Reinventing Yourself" by Robert Fredella, CareerJournal.com: www.careerjournal.com/columnists/perspective/20040217-fmp.html