What roads lead to career and life reinvention?

People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with  borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.” ~ Warren G. Bennis

Some of my story …..

20 months ago, just before turning 46 and after a disastrous time in my life (the love of my life left me, my dog died, an IRS audit, an apartment fire, surgery and loosing my job…..) My life had started to sound like a sad country song. I decided to take my life back, and with the help of family, friends, armed with a sense of humor and an awesome Life Coach I got down to the work of “reinvention”. I had become a mid career, middle management type in mid life …… “mid” never quite suited me, I had always been a little edgier and unconventional – so how did I get to the middle? I guess I had compromised some of my dreams, like so many women do.

How reinvention and a great life coach is changing my life        

Working closely with a Life Coach, I wrote a list of my hopes and dreams and set forth to achieve as many as possible in the next 25 years.

Goal #1  was to go to Graduate school and complete an MBA, but I didn’t want to do just any program, I chose the #1 ranked program in Global Management…and in  Europe!

Even before I applied I had my doubts:

• Would I be the oldest person there? 
• How current and relevant was I?
• and most importantly how the heck was I going to  manage to get to Geneva, Switzerland every 6 weeks for 10 days at a time when I had no job, little savings and the economy had tanked?

I put all of my things in  storage, got rid of my car, and I am happy to report that I did it! after 17 months of financial struggle, working hard on my studies and lots of support from unexpected places, I graduated with my MBA in Global Management!

That's me!

In fact, I was not the oldest participant, the oldest was an energetic woman from Poughkeepsie, New York who is in her 60’s, and had set her dreams on hold to raise a family and grow a business. Her dream was to work in the Foreign Service and live an exotic life abroad – and she may do that now that her husband is retired. I learned lots about business and the world – from books and my fellow students from around the globe – and I learned that I knew much more than I thought I did. So many of us forget to acknowledge how much we know and have learned through our life experiences.

Are you recognizing it’s YOUR time for a change?

Mid life is a good time for reinvention, but you don’t have to be middle aged to do it. For example, when working with a Life Coach, anyone can make a careful evaluation of  what you want to accomplish, then take the action steps towards making it happen. This is powerful stuff, at any age.

The Reinvention Road

That’s what I will be writing about, the journey, struggles, joys and unexpected twists that is reinvention – I will share my experiences and what I am learning on the reinvention road, and I hope to hear from you and other people who are fellow travelers or just thinking about it…..

Think about this ………….

If you could make any change in your life without risk, what would you do?  What’s holding you back?

Enjoy this clever and beautifully done video about “Nagging Doubt”

What would it be like if you answered the pull of your unrequited dreams?

Disclaimer  - I am not advocating that anyone run out and do what I did, this is my personal journey that may serve as inspiration but not a road map. Part of reinvention is finding your own dreams and working towards fulfilling them…. whatever they may be.

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