So you want to re-invent yourself?
You feel stuck in your career or personal life or goals? You know you want to do something else, kind of know what it is, but not really. You kind of know how to proceed, but not really.
You certainly are very afraid, but are not acknowledging it. You just are not comfortable where you are, but you have responsibilities from which you cannot walk away.
Well, here are some thoughts from Kevin Kelly, Derek Sivers and others.
How to go about your re-invention.
– Experiment your way through this need to re-invent yourself
Whatever you feel like doing, try it. In a small-scale. Just for yourself . Try it and see if it feels right. Like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing if it sticks?
– One step at a time, incrementally
Don’t try to make a huge big massive catastrophic change since you are not ready for it. If you were ready for something like that, you wouldn’t be here reading this.
– Take a step – evaluate is its working, if that’s the direction you want to go – continue
If you like where you are heading take a step forward. If not take a step back.
– Do it deliberately
Think through what you are doing. Acknowledge you are going to do it. And then do it. No ‘unconsciously / subconsciously’ doing anything.
Leave the old one only when the new one is prove reliable
Keep the momentum, the drive.
Ok, you say. That sounds good. But how do I know if the direction I’m heading is the right one?
How to find direction
– Do you get satisfaction out of it?
– Is it something you used to do as a kid and really really miss it?
– Are you pulled like crazy in a particular direction? Spending many hours on this when you ‘should ‘ be working on other ‘important’ and ‘urgent’ tasks?
Some Other Thoughts
– You cannot escape all other things going on – like responsibilities, taking care of your family. Accept it, but don’t be bowed down by it.
– Just bend in a certain / new direction. Slowly, steadily, like swaying with the wind, the wind of your own making.
– It won’t happen overnight.
– It’s the doing and loving what you are doing that matters
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From Kevin Kelly’s interview by Tim Ferriss
“I think you can experiment your way through this, you can do this incrementally. You can take small steps and do something, and then evaluate it, test how it’s going, whether you’re getting what you want out of it, whether it’s working, and then you continue in that direction. That’s sort of the pattern of people who have second careers or “reinvent themselves”, you hear that a lot. “
“I think it’s something that you’re going to … I’m a big believer in doing things deliberately, and I think that you begin by looking at those areas that you get satisfaction out of, and those areas where … I often find that people kind of retreat back to the things that they did as kids and really, really miss, whether it’s art or other things. The truth is, you’re not really going to be able to escape all the other things you have going. And that’s a good thing because that is part of you and part of what you do well. So you’ll probably just bend in a certain direction.”
– Kevin Kelly
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October 20, 2014