New Directions: Steps to Reinventing Yourself

“What do I want to do next?”
Are you ready to do something else? Or are you facing retirement, an empty-nest, loss of a spouse or job, feelings of stagnation or dissatisfaction or have other life circumstances changed?

First things first
Income: “Can I do whatever I want, or do I need to earn an income?”
What matters to you?: “What motivates me, makes me what to get up in the morning?” Are you seeing pleasure or meaning? Are you looking for mostly personal enjoyment, such as travel, woodworking or playing tennis, or purpose, such as helping others, in this next stage?
Are you ready? Making a change means letting go of something familiar. It also means taking everything you have learned from what you’ve done so far to the next level.

Build on your history
Outline your own personal history. Keep it simple: use bullet points. List significant events, how they influenced you, what about them was important to you. For example,

• As the 9th child born into a large family headed by a physician famous in our small town for making house calls, many forces preceded me on my paths into the world.
• My father, a physician, took us all to our music lessons, sports events and, yes, doctor’s appointments.
• I spent half my 9th grade year in bed with mono. Read all of Dickens.

Reflect on your childhood.
What did you love to do? What were you good at? What experiences were meaningful? What kinds of people did you like? What did you dream about doing?

List your accomplishments
Working backwards from the present to your school days, describe at least three proud moments in each job and stage of your life. Then in each accomplishment identify what motivated you and what talent/s you used to achieve success. Interview your family and friends to help you remember. Besides, others may recognize achievements that you overlook because they seemed effortless to you.

Look for themes: skills, preferences, roles, interests, causes, cultures or environments. What implications do they have for your next steps?

Retirement offers freedom to recapture long-abandoned enthusiasms. Worry not about being selfish, appearing foolish or being incompetent. Learning new skills or about new subjects stretches the mind and is the secret to staying young, healthy, interested and interesting.

Tell a story–create your own future.
Creating your own future clarifies it, energizes it and helps to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. You’ll notice opportunities you might have missed otherwise and you’re more likely to act on them.

What is your ideal future? Write several stories, long or short, that would take you there. Be as open to the possibilities as you can. As with brainstorming, anything goes. Shoot for the moon. These are just stories, but they’re your stories and they move you closer to your dreams.

Plan Ahead
Can’t stop working? Consider going back to school part-time or getting additional training, perhaps subsidized by your employer. Or think about pursuing your full time interest in a part-time job. Sometimes the unexpected happens at work; now you have some choices, you have already opened some other doors.

Next steps
Talk to people who are doing what you want to do. Volunteer where your interests are being pursued. Look for ways that your experience can contribute to outcomes you have passion about.

Whether it’s rediscovering what motivates you or reinventing yourself for retirement, write your own story and enjoy the success that follows.

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Pamela Corbett is an executive coach, career and outplacement counselor, organizational consultant and psychotherapist with her own practice, Spectrum Psychological Services based in Winston-Salem, NC. Licensed in North Carolina and trained in clinical psychology (Penn State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Pam is a certified Master Practitioner of NLP and is certified in the entire suite of Career, Leadership, and Organizational Architect Tools. Pamela has been providing executive assessment, development planning, coaching, and training through her own business and as adjunct faculty with the Center for Creative Leadership since 1986. Pam’s earlier work experience includes a veterinary hospital start-up, television production, insurance claims negotiation, inpatient and outpatient psychotherapy, and teaching at Wake Forest University. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.