Yes, Reinvention is a Very Good Option
"Don't hold yourself accountable to your bio. Your platform may far exceed it." ~ Lisa Nichols
This article was inspired by my very diverse facebook community. I had a contest on my page, asking people to select between three quotes and choose the one that resonated with them the strongest. The one that got the highest number of votes would be the inspiration for my weekly article her on ForHarriet.com. The three options were:
1. Right Thinking creates Radical Results
2. The Power Begins in You
3. You Can Create your Life
Number three got the most votes, You Can Create your Life. As I meditated on the quote, these thoughts came to the surface:
It's okay to reinvent yourself! You don't need to apologize to anyone for a shift in the trajectory of your life. You are responsible for creating Your Life, not anyone else's! Stand Tall. Be Proud. Embrace Change and do you all the way!
Most women find the act of reinvention and having the power to create their life to be a foreign and even fearful concept. As a result, we are more prone to get caught up in trying to live our lives according to someone else's standards and expectations.
I have a close friend who is a successful Architect/Project Manager. For years, she wanted to be a photographer but held back from going after her dream. She would talk about it but was fearful to take the steps to do something outside of her field of expertise.
Finally, after several years she quietly started to purchase all of the bells-and-whistle level equipment (translation: several thousand dollars worth) and then we got to work on her business name, logo and tag line and she started doing small projects. At that time I owned a t-shirt company and she took all of the photos for my website. Then she started handing out her new business card everywhere she went and she soon had a steadily growing business.
Years later, she still does Project Management, but she also has received several major awards for her photographs and has traveled to China and other exotic places to take pictures. Like most of us, she had to grow into accepting the truth that reinvention is a good option.
Reinvention is the realm of possibility and since possibility has no fixed address that alone frightens many of us. We have been fed a steady diet that says we should focus on closed-ended trajectory for the course of our life's journey. You know, the kinds of careers that end with a pension and social security for a "safe" retirement.
Well, thank goodness, the world is a very different place than it was when my grandparents and even my parents were preparing to experience life. Like never before, the consciousness or belief system of the black community has become more inclusive of "reinvention thinking." We are recognizing that we have plenty of say in what happens in and to our lives and the contribution we get to make to the world is really on our own terms.
The truth of the matter is that we are creating our lives whether we realize it or not. Every moment of action and inaction adds up to the sum total of the existence we have created.
"Does what you have created thus far measure up to the dream that lives inside your soul?"
If it does, terrific! If not, then get out your idea journal and start to put pen to plan and figure out what you want to do different. Is there some burning desire that you have to impact humanity or innovate a new way of resolving issues and creating a wave of positive change in the world? Whatever it is, you can do it, because You Can Create your Life.
Go ahead, put on your reinvention cap and soar to higher heights than you've ever gone before!
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