Today’s Action Item: Reinvent Self!
Filed under: Career, Life and Business, Making Decisions, Professional Growth, Social Commentary, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
I know an awful lot of talented, hard-working people talking about or rehearsing for the process of reinventing their professional selves. This is the silent epidemic taking place in people over 40 that doesn’t garner the same level of attention as our anticipated flu epidemics.
The economy has a lot to do with the upsurge in reinvention motivation. People that have been impacted or watched others impacted by layoffs and closings are feeling pressure to either “get prepared” or to do whatever it takes to avoid a similar fate.
There must be something more.
A good number of people that I’ve spoken with readily indicate that the lack of job security is one part of their motivation to strike out on in new areas. The other part stems from having worked half of their useful careers (or more) for a paycheck without finding any particular sense of accomplishment or reward. These individuals believe that they’ve worked hard over their careers and earned their keep, but have reached a point where they feel like they are just marking time on a calendar of unknown duration.
While many proclaim the interest in reinventing their professional lives, just like those that say that they want to write a book, few will actually pull it off. The fantasy is nice, but the physical act of getting started and then finishing seems so incomprehensible and overwhelming that people nurture the fantasy with little real intent to follow through.
This is darned hard work:
I’m a chronic personal reinventor and let me tell you, this is darned hard work. I’ve been at it for three years solid and I’m still a work in process. On one hand, the road in front of me still looks daunting and on the other hand, the road behind is filled with many of the experiences (including writing a book, speaking, coaching, training and teaching) that I’ve aspired to my entire life. It’s not in my nature to focus on the accomplishments behind me, but rather the distance and challenges still ahead, an occasional look in the rear-view mirror provides the motivation to keep moving forward.
Tips Learned Thus Far:
- It helps if you have a precise goal in mind for your professional reinvention. It’s taken me three years to narrow down my focal points to a manageable and related 2: coaching small business owners on marketing and coaching emerging and early career professionals on leadership.
- Expect to change your goals.
- Don’t spend too much time rehearsing. Start taking action even while you are planning.
- Don’t expect help…it’s likely not forthcoming. You are your own work in process and your spouse and family can’t do anything but offer encouragement and support.
- Having offered the cynical view on help, you’ll find it in unexpected places. I would not have imagined the daily support that I receive from friends on Twitter or the great quality relationships that I’ve started through reading a book or article and reaching out to authors and the remarkable mentoring that I’ve received from others on this journey.
- Help everyone you can along the way. Pay it forward.
- It’s good to have a plan to monetize your passion unless you are independently wealthy. Eating is good.
- You cannot talk to enough people or study hard enough. Do both, constantly.
- Take comfort in operating so far outside your comfort zone that this becomes the rule not the exception.
- Ask. Many of my accomplishments were made possible because I picked up the phone or knocked on a door and introduced and asked.
- How tough are you? You’d better be remarkably tough to face this journey. You will encounter and experience more failure and more disappointment on the road to success than you could have ever imagined in your life marking the calendar.
The Bottom Line
You get one chance to live this particular life and you’ve got to decide how important it is for you to write that book or pursue making a dream your reality. If you lack the courage, that’s fine. No one but you really knows. On the other hand, if this is how you plan on reminding yourself that you are alive, expect to face an odyssey filled with trials and dangers that you never imagined. What a way to enjoy the journey!
Comments
9 Comments on Today’s Action Item: Reinvent Self!
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Bret Simmons on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:19 am
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Art Petty on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:22 am
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Mary Jo Asmus on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:35 am
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Art Petty on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 9:47 am
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Andrew Meyer on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 12:11 pm
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@GlitteratiChic on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 3:57 pm
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Art Petty on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 4:24 pm
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Dorothy Dalton on
Fri, 2nd Oct 2009 4:56 pm
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Zachary Vernal on
Sun, 4th Oct 2009 5:53 pm
As usual, Art, a fantastic article. I’m going down this path in my life right now. I got complacent and comfortable in the current education paradigm and never saw the scenario my job or salary could be cut. Our legislature has already cut our salaries almost 5% and I don’t think they are finished. Shame on me for not being ready. Never again. People think I am nuts for trying some of the things I am trying, but I am having a blast and connecting with great new people all the time. Keep up the great work! Bret
Bret, thanks for sharing a bit about your own journey of reinvention. Kudos for your phenomenal attitude and willingness to take control. And you raise a great point that I didn’t cover in the post…all sorts of people will think you are nuts in the process. Don’t think most of my extended family members have a good clue why I am doing what I am doing. Keep up the good fight!
Best,
Art
Art, again a great post. As someone who gravitates to stability, after 25 years in corporate, I quite to start my own business. Mass layoffs due to an acquisition made me do it – I wouldn’t be here otherwise. The secret for me was having an “anchor” of what is important to me deep in my gut (lets call it a strong value system, for what its worth). This anchor steered me in the right direction and continues to help me to focus on what matters when there are a ton of choices out there!
Also, I can’t help but mention that I hired a coach when I started this journey. This was huge support for me, and helped me greatly to “feel the fear and do it anyway” as I reinvent myself late in life.
I can now proudly recommend reinvention.
Mary Jo, thanks for sharing the challenge that you tackled so effectively. It is daunting to go from the security of corporate walls to the world of the soloist. Love your secret…the strong value system! Great reminder on the value of a coach. That professional can be priceless when all around you are wondering what you are doing. Thanks so much for your always thoughtful and valuable additions!
Best, Art
Art,
great write up on a tough day for Chicago. Maybe Chicago will have to reinvent itself a bit after the IOC vote.
America’s a tough country, with very few structural protections for workers. Whether it’s what you study in school, career choices, jobs, retirement planning, insurance, or any number of other areas; the burden of responsibility is on the individual to make the choices and live with the consequences. This makes the labor pool very flexible and allows for tremendous readjustment. It is probably one of the main reasons the US has led the world innovative areas.
The down side, is that people and companies have to reinvent themselves. The burden is on the individual to make this choice. The belief is that individuals, acting in their own self interest, will make better decisions then central planners, aristocrats, or bureaucrats. While it is tough and in many cases terribly unfair, our future is in our own hands. Thanks for the reminder to tend to it.
Art, this is a great article. I hope you won’t mind if I share it with my teams. Even though I know few of them are likely to undertake a reinvention process in the near future, it seems that several of these points might function independently and serve to slowly move people to the life they really want to live.Personal experience taught me being ’stuck’ in life is a horrible place to find yourself. It’s now part of my reason for being to help others get a step up as part of repaying the debt I owe others from helping me to move forward.
Andrew, as always, you add an eloquent perspective to the post. Thanks!
Kristin, please share away and perhaps together, we can “unstuck” a few people. Thanks for your great comment!
-Art
Art – great post and one that resonates with me in so many ways. On a personal level I have resurrected qualifications buried deep in the tool box and found great satisfaction and also support from people where I least expected it.
As a career transition coach I am a huge fan of encouraging clients to apply transferrable skills when they consider pastures new. It’s OK I think not to be too precise about goals in the beginning. My observation is that a certain amount of trial and error is normal in the early stages of re-invention. Eventually things start to make sense and it’s almost better not to be too constrained !
What a great way to tell the story.
Best
Dorothy
Art;
Wonderful Post!
What is the point of doing something if you are not happy with it? As far as I know, I am only going to get to live once, and I want to make the most of it.
I realize that many people do not have the ability to just get up and quit a job they do not like, but in the long term people should not be doing things that make them unhappy. You should not be scared to take chances. Life is too unpredictable and complex to just continue the same thing over and over, especially if it is making you unhappy. Taking that leap of faith might just lead to the best thing that has ever happen to you.
Well, that is my two cents. Have a good one Art
-Zack
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