NEW NORMAL | REINVENT
How to Reinvent Yourself for the Future?
Your success in the new normal depends on it.
What if there was a better to live and earn, but you didn’t know about it?
After working for over thirty years in Corporate America, I reinvented myself.
Even when I worked for others, I didn’t think like an employee. I always thought like an entrepreneur. There is a distinction between the two mindsets. I wondered why I never stayed too long at any job.
My approach to every job was as if I owned the business, but most managers under whom I worked didn’t. As a result, we would have disagreements and I would be looking for another job. Sometimes by choice, other times not.
I got to a point where I said, enough is enough, why work for incompetent people when you could reinvent yourself?
I had already experimented with owning a business a few times. Some of them were profitable, others lost money. They all taught me some valuable lessons.
In early 2008, my latest business failed six months after I had fired my boss. So, I reinvented myself as a balloon twister, something I had never imagined myself doing. But it turned out to be one of the wisest decisions I made.
Twelve years later, I find myself in a position needing to reinvent myself, again.
If You Did it Once, You Can Do it Again
Would you like to reinvent yourself? Below is the process I have used before and am using now. Anyone can use this method to reinvent themselves.
I love to create and use acronyms to organize my thoughts on any topic. Here, I am using the word REINVENT as an acronym to explain the process I have used that you can too.
Reasons
Whenever you start a project, the first thing you need to do is to define your why. You need to know why you are doing it. This is the most important exercise because it gives you focus and direction as you move forward.
Twelve years ago my why was that I didn’t want someone else to control my time, or tell me how much I can earn. They are just as important today when the world is changing, and there is no going back to the way things were. The work I have been doing for the last twelve years may not be relevant for some time to come. I need to prepare myself for the new normal.
What are your reasons for wanting to reinvent yourself? What is your driving force? Without a powerful reason, you will falter. You need to define your why for the change.
Energy
Change is taxing on everything in life. The Universe is made out of energy. Do you remember your high school physics? E=mc2. It is just a numerical formula that says that matter and energy are interchangeable.
Any kind of change will create chaos in your life, and out of that chaos, you will have to create a new order. The process of letting go of the old and bringing forth the new will require a lot of energy.
Prepare yourself for a roller coaster ride, which can be thrilling and scary simultaneously. You will need a lot of energy.
Innovation
It’s a process of making something new out of something that already exists. We are not inventing anything new; we are re-inventing ourselves into something different.
Take inventory of your life. What are the things you like? What energizes you? Remember, you will need a lot of energy.
What were your favorite subjects in school? Your extracurricular activities? Your favorite jobs? These can be strong clues as you move toward reinventing yourself.
When I looked back, I realized that I enjoyed working with people. Customer service is my strong suit. That’s why I was a successful waiter.
Waiting tables provided me with a lot of flexibility in my schedule. Having control over my time is an enormous part of my why. It also allowed me, to a great extent, how much money I can make by focusing on what I can control 100% — customer service.
Another thing that always energized me was children. I was a cub scout leader as a teenager. Later on, I volunteered as a pre-school teacher at my community center.
Normal
What was normal for you? It could differ completely from what was normal for me. What did you like about your so-called normal life? What didn’t you like about it?
Now that you are reinventing yourself, keep that in mind. There will be certain parts of your old normal you might want to keep because they are important to you. Other parts you may want to let go of because they may be stressful. As long as you are evaluating, you can decide.
I wanted flexibility then and now. You may want consistency, I don’t know.
Just remember, what was normal will not be normal anymore, but you may want to preserve some aspects of it. Focus on your why.
Vision
You have gathered enough information about yourself, now it is time to form a vision of what you want.
As you start to create your vision, keep an open mind. Write down, or consider any ideas that come your way. It may be something you always wanted to do, or it may be something you’ve never dreamed of. If it excites you or scares you, chances are you’re on the right path. If it does both, you’ve found your perfect idea.
As I went through this exercise twelve years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the idea of twisting balloons. I had never considered it before, though I used to admire the ability of the people who did it where I worked. It was perfect for me. It offered everything; it fits all aspects of my why like a glove.
Flexibility, check. Set my own pay, check. Independence, check. Working with people, check even better.
Experience
I had none. I didn’t know how to twist balloons. Heck, I didn’t even know where to start. But the thought of it was exciting. It energized me. I enthusiastically investigated and dug in with all my might. The rest was a piece of cake.
On the other hand, I had excellent customer service skills, and I was used to working for tips.
For twelve years, it has not only supported me but given me the Freedom Lifestyle I always wanted.
What does your vision look like? Is it clear? Does it excite and energize you? Do you have any experience that can be transferred to your new venture?
Do you need help putting it together? Respond to this story and let’s connect. it will be my pleasure to help you find your new self.
New
When I started writing this, I had the two N’s listed in the reverse order. I was thinking about the New Normal. But I have learned to trust the process. You will too.
While balloon twisting was new to me, it invigorated me. It offered me a fresh challenge, an exciting adventure — an astonishing life.
Every day brought an opportunity to learn something new. The children challenged me with new requests that I couldn’t wait to learn. When you find your new vision, you will know if it’s right by the way you feel.
Your body speaks, listen to it.
Trust
As I said before, it will be both exciting and scary. Trust your inner guidance. It will never lead you astray. When you’re scared, focus on your why, get grounded, and pay attention to your inner guide. Learn to trust your ability to discern.
“My success took me the exact amount of time it took for me to trust myself, to trust my essence, to trust this Presence, this other realm and momentum of ease and goodness you never see on the evening news.” ~ Tama Kieves
To Sum it Up
You may be forced by circumstances, or you may be internally motivated to reinvent yourself. Regardless, the process of reinventing yourself can be beneficial.
You may find out things about yourself you didn’t know. You may discover a strength you didn’t know you possessed. When you focus on the Reasons you want to reinvent yourself, you’ll also be able to tap into a source of Energy that may have been hidden from you until now.
Using this untapped energy, you can dig within yourself to Innovate your knowledge and experience which under Normal circumstances you would be unaware of.
By creating a Vision of what you want your life to look like, you can use your Experience in better and New ways to get more out of life. All of this adds up to you being able to Trust yourself in a manner that you have not until now.
You can REINVENT yourself into a better and happier self.
As always, thank you for reading and responding.
Rasheed Hooda is a published author and a regular contributor to ILLUMINATION, a writers’ community on Medium where writers support each other.
He is a self-proclaimed weirdo who lives a Freedom Lifestyle and writes about related topics — Travel (a top writer), Personal Growth, Freedom, and entrepreneurship. (Get the Newsletter)
More about me:
An interview by Dr. M Yildiz for ILLUMINATION
