As I am on my porch writing this afternoon, I’m savoring fall at its most magnificent. The contrast of brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds with the deep blue of the sky. The wind, shaking things up and offering a preview of the wildness of the winter season. The variety of songbirds in the yard, including some that I never see except at migration time. The showers of falling leaves.

Falling leaves. Falling leaves have taken some getting used to, California girl that I am. Mainly because falling leaves, for years, have signaled only one thing to me: the frigid white stuff is on its way!

Today, in the striking beauty of the sunlit fall day, I’m savoring it all, in this moment.

I’m no botanist, but I am guessing that by losing their leaves in the fall, deciduous trees are better able to withstand the ravages of winter. There’s less exposure to the elements.

Think about your reinvention: What is it time for you to lose that will help you better navigate the rapids of change?

As I have mentioned, in my current reinvention I’m becoming a writer.

As I have also spoken about many times, because it is something that comes up all the time for me, I am losing my structured, action-planning way of being in my work.

The leaves on the trees, in summer, helped the trees with the growth during that season. For many years, my detailed action plans, with firm deadlines, anticipated way in advance, really helped me grow and be successful. When I was in my thirties and was a Vice President for a multi-national financial services company, those plans were survival tools. They helped me grow into a very focused way of working. They helped me maintain a rigorous professional growth and be very successful in that environment.

But now, that way of approaching my writing work just hampers me. It gets in the way of being in the flow of what is beckoning me next. The writing cannot ‘tell me’ where it is going next when I have already decided and structured it.

Can you imagine the trees in fall, kicking and screaming and trying to hold onto their leaves, to keep them from falling? That’s what I do with inner beliefs and processes that are ready to go, when I don’t yet trust the new way enough to let the letting go go naturally!

So, today I am inviting you to imagine what you are being asked to let go of in your reinvention. What is it time to let fall away from you, naturally, just like the trees are allowing their leaves to fall today?

Filed under: Being a Reinventer, Adventures of a Reinventer on October 12th, 2007