How to Reinvent Yourself and Create Your Life Anew
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by Suzanne Glover
Learning how to reinvent yourself and create your own life fresh and new this year can easily be done when you throw out making new year’s resolutions!
Let’s face it, statistics show that 50-97% of new year’s resolutions are abandoned shortly after making them. Let’s take a quick look at some of the common new year resolutions and see why this statistic is so high.
Here are the top 10 new years resolutions:
- Stop a unhealthy habit such as drinking too much alcohol or quit smoking and/or overeating.
- Spend more time with family and friends.
- Improve how the body looks and functions by beginning an exercise program and/or losing weight.
- Gain control over finances by getting out of debt and/or saving money.
- Increase mental knowledge by learning something new or getting a better education.
- Take a trip and/or travel more.
- Volunteer to help others.
- Manage stress more effectively.
- Secure a better career or job.
- Become more earth conscious by reducing waste and recycling.
If you look closely at these resolutions, the main things that people are “resolving to do” are things that they think will improve their health, happiness and self image in some fashion. However, doing just the opposite is necessary because improving self image first is key. Once self image becomes better, it’s natural to create healthier habits and actually accomplish many of the “resolutions” that are so readily made and broken.
While you first may think these resolutions are ways to reinvent yourself, they’re really “symptoms” of low self esteem and making vows to overcome them without addressing the underlying cause is usually a frustrating exercise.
If you really want to learn how to reinvent yourself, you want to stop looking at the external factors and go internally to see what’s motivating you to stay the same way as you are now.
For example, you may feel a need to fit in so you stay stuck in your mediocre job simply because “it’s what your friends” are doing. If you get a better job and don’t have anything to complain about, you probably won’t fit in with them anymore and that risks isolation and perhaps loneliness.
But if you have the courage and confidence that you can make new friends in your new life, the transition to getting a better job “just happens” because you’re not subconsciously holding yourself back from succeeding.
For example, when you reinvent self esteem enough on the inside, you can’t help but find ways to reinvent yourself on the outside simply because you feel so good about yourself.
Same thing goes with every facet of your life. If you want to reinvent your career, start by asking yourself what you really want to be doing all day and then focus on that instead of just looking for another job or “way out” of your present unhappy circumstances.
What you really need to do is start treating yourself better in small ways that show your subconscious that you’re worthwhile and create a game plan for small steps to create your own life on your own terms.
Here’s an outline of things to do to reinvent your life:
1) “I Want to Reinvent Myself!”
First make the choice that you want to reinvent yourself by saying, “I want to reinvent myself.” Write it down and keep it close to you so you are continually prompted to create the desire to reinvent your life. Don’t put a time frame on this, just let it happen. (Putting a time frame on it is good, but the explanation is enough material for an entire article in another issue.)
By focusing on creating your desire for change instead of looking for ways to reinvent yourself, you set your radar on attracting whatever you need to learn how to reinvent yourself.
2) Be Patient
Give yourself plenty of time to make change – be patient. It took a long time for you to get where you are now, so let yourself “unravel” your undesirable habits over time too.
Two valuable thoughts to keep in mind when setting a time frame for change is this:
“Where would I be right now if I had taken small, incremental steps one year ago in the direction of the change that I want to make?”
“Where will I be in one year from now if I take simple, consistent action toward what I desire?”
While a year may seem like an eternity when you want to make change, part of the change that you’re making is learning how to practice patience and, ironically, having patience sets you on the success track faster than anything else.
More ways to reinvent yourself…
