Reinvention - Myth or Reality

Each day as I pass by middle-aged people (45-65 and sometimes much younger) on the streets and in the stores, I see it in their once twinkling eyes and on their faces. I see the sadness and hear the resentment and frustration in their voices. It’s like they’re in a trance, distracted, frozen in a world of worry, fear, stress, and anxiety.

What’s going on here? What happened to these ‘poor’ folks? What stole their lives? What took them out of their game and benched them? Has life cheated them out of their dreams? Were they disillusioned and didn’t see “it” coming? It’s a dark place to be in and a very difficult one to get out of!

There are millions of people walking next to us every day that are suffering silently, dying inside but too ashamed to admit it, merely existing day by day because they have yet to come up with an answer to their dilemma.  Maybe they lost their job and couldn’t get back into the workforce. Maybe they were hit by a personal tragedy that completely knocked them off course. Or maybe their career choice wasn’t the fit they thought it would be. Whatever the reason, a dark place is a dark place and each one copes with it at their current level of consciousness and understanding.

Studies and polls are showing that millions of people are unhappy in their jobs and most are disengaged at work. We are constantly prodded to find and live our passion, our purpose. Most people have no idea what their purpose in life is, let alone live it! So many have worked for years at a job or in a business they thought was right for them but for some reason they now feel empty and unfulfilled. Change is almost out of the question because they are so entrenched in life’s personal and financial obligations. They are STUCK!

So how do you get UNSTUCK? The Internet is ‘loaded’ with advice – 5 steps to the life of your dreams! Read this or that self-help book and you’ll be on easy street within 3 months! Try this New Transformational Program and you’ll change the world! It goes on and on and on…Yeah right! Good luck with that!

Then along comes the next “shiny new thing” – Reinvention. Reinvent yourself! Personal stories abound especially for those in the second half of their lives, leaving the corporate world after three decades in search of their true calling, boomers opening B&Bs and vineyards, women over 40 starting businesses, and people in their 60s starting over. Even retirement is being transformed and reinventing itself.

The concept of Reinvention is a great narrative, especially when compared to the alternative that says you’re too old and washed up at some arbitrary age, your best days are behind you...you’re left with two choices: hang on for dear life or the abyss.

So is Reinvention a viable solution or is it an unrealistic fantasy? To the majority, Reinvention is not practical and in many cases not even desirable. However, seen from a different perspective with a slight twist, Reinvention may be worth a second look under the guise of Reintegration. The idea of midlife renewal and reintegrating into society is easier to get your head around whereas Reinvention connotes a complete do-over.

At any age, let’s just say from your early forties through your seventies, there is a treasure trove of life experiences that have accumulated and it’s NOT baggage! Your past does not have to be and shouldn’t be completely discarded. You’re not starting over from scratch!

You start by reexamining your priorities. Go within to reunite with your center – your code of values, ethics, and beliefs. Then you extract the pearls of accumulated wisdom, the triumphs and successes you enjoyed “before the fall” and reintegrate them into a new idea, that idea that has surfaced or nudged you periodically throughout the chapters of your life. You know that idea.

Throughout your life, there has been a deep-rooted idea or desire that you consciously or unconsciously ignored even though it kept nagging you and bubbling up along the way. It may be recognized as your true calling – that all-illusive purpose that is so often talked about. It’s there ready to be integrated with your life experiences, thus a new chapter is born!

So getting back to the question: How do you get UNSTUCK? It may have just been answered or at least reset a starting point. It’s time to draw on your reservoir of experience and share it with your generation as well as the upcoming younger generations. There is great value in what you have to offer!

Maybe it’s time to lace up your shoes, get off the bench and back into the game? As a Coach/Mentor, I’m with you all the way!