You can read about my really big past reinvention on the About page. That tells the story of when I shook up just about everything in my life at once. It felt like the substrata of my life shifted during that reinvention. And it did, because I set out to change my work, my primary relationship, and my geographic location, all in one fell swoop. I wouldn’t recommend it.

That was before I understood a fundamental misconception about reinventions. It isn’t really about changing the outer elements of your life.

Most people think of reinvention as a life or work redesign. Changing circumstances and/or the functioning elements in your life is the focus of a reinvention, but it is definitely not the main event.

The main event, and what you really want, is to be more of who you are.

You, and I, embark on a journey of reinvention because we think that when we make the changes in our lives or work that we intend to make, we will get to be more of who we really are, i.e., our ‘authentic’ selves. What we really want is what the reinvention calls forth from us. The energy and excitement of evolving, and engaging with life at a whole new level.

It’s an inner game, not an outer game. Of course, the outer stuff definitely changes, but it changes to line up with who you are becoming on the inside.

In my current reinvention, I’m becoming a writer. This awakens in me a spirit of adventure and promise, sheer possibility and potential. I’m really excited as I embark on this new phase of my work journey.

Becoming a writer also challenges me in a big way, to stay aligned with my authentic self, to transcend the fear of getting my work and my perspectives and my point of view ‘out there’. In our world of the internet, ‘out there’ is really ‘out there’!

As Wayne Dyer once said, we are not in charge of our reputations. Not everyone will agree or like or appreciate what I have to say. I have to decide to write because I want to write, not for approval in some form. For a dyed-in-the-wool ‘good girl’ and recovering ‘people pleaser’, this is a real stretch and call to claim my own voice, with authority and without apology.

So, you see that what might initially look like a ‘minor’ reinvention is for me a real call to step forward in a big way.

For me, reinvention has it all: adventures into the unknown and uncharted, being in the flow of full empowerment, engaging full-out with the creative energy of life, and stepping into gremlin land-mines.

It’s about not settling for the status quo, but instead insisting on charting your own course when you have no friggin’ idea where you are going, jumping into the best life has to offer for you and trusting that you will find your way.

It is life at it’s most engaged, that is for sure. Stay tuned for more ‘adventures’.

Filed under: Adventures of a Reinventer on September 25th, 2007