What Do You Need to Reinvent?

Recently, I’ve become acutely aware that all my clients have one thing in common, they want something different, not something new, just something different in some facet of their leadership practice or profession. For me, a word and an image have surfaced. 

The word that won’t let me go, that feels like an anchor pulling on me despite the waves, is the word: “re-invention”. It’s not about creating or inventing something new, it’s more about taking what is a familiar or a commonplace experience and reworking it to make it more functional. What once worked so well no longer does and it requires a “re-invention”

At work this could mean that the way you spend your time or live out your schedule no longer suits you. It could mean the way you relate to your boss, your board or your co-workers is no longer productive. It could even mean that the way you work at all makes no sense to you. Or it might not be your work at all, it could be a relationship, a value, or a belief. Whatever it is, what once fit so well for you, that met a need, that was just the way you went about your work, your day, or your life without a second thought is no longer working. For you to go on it needs to change, to be rethought, to be reinvented. In fact, the very realization of this truth means that you can’t go on with things as they are. Something must give, something must change for you to become efficient, healthy, productive and move forward. 

Yet, we can’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. We can’t just stop working, or not have a schedule or change your board, boss, or team. We have two choices: we can limp forward with what we have, or we can take the bold steps to reinvent that which doesn’t work anymore, that which is broken, painful or no longer serves us. 

What is it for you? 

What is that thought forming right now in your mind, that small voice in your head whispering “Yes, he’s talking about this or that! If I could only change this or find freedom in that”. If you’re still and reflect for a moment your mind will surface that one thing that needs to be reinvented for you. What is that thing which you have accepted and relinquished control of?

Once you realize this, you begin to become free. 

Say to yourself: “Imagine the freedom I would feel if I could just…”

The first step in this process is an acceptance that something in your work or personal life is not working as it once did. To take this first step, to put your finger on it leads you to a place of choice, to get off whatever treadmill you are on and operate in a new way that brings you different and potentially refreshing results. That acceptance and choice instantly moves you toward a place of being in control. It moves you from victim to activator, from survivor to thriver. This is a powerful place. 

What is that one area of work or life, for you, that you need and want but not the way it is now? Say it out loud or write it down. Take the first step to say, “no more, not this way”. 

Over the next few weeks, I invite you to walk with me through a few practical steps to deconstruct and reconstruct that thing you want to reinvent. Together, we'll look at why this issue or area of your life that once worked flawlessly no longer does. We’ll deconstruct it to it’s fundamental and necessary pieces and reassemble it into something that better serves you. 

If you want that freedom, you must commit to the journey. You cannot tinker with the machine and strip it down to its essence, with parts and pieces lying on the floor around you unless you are committed to the fact that it will never go back together the way it once was. Will you join me? 

Think about it.