Lisa S Downing

Reinventing yourself is an option.  Just because you have faced a devastating failure in an area of your life does not mean that you need to change everything about yourself.  We are often our own worst critic and find major fault where there is only a tiny adjustment that needs to be made.  When deciding to reinvent yourself it is often best to pick one area to concentrate on.  It might be your physical health or appearance, it might be your career or job, it might be the way you relate to other people.  It really could be anything.  If you try to make a “whole new me” you will find yourself moving in too many directions  and most likely will lose heart and go right back to where you were before.

The first step is an honest evaluation of what challenge you want to overcome.  Do not get caught on the “I’ve always been this way and I can never change” self-pity merry-go-round.  Everything in life boils down to one thing – a decision.  We make decisions about things all day long.  Some of our decisions are so habitual that we don’t even think about them anymore.  For example – what does your face look like right now?  Are you smiling or did you have that old, worn out, tired, sour puss face that you always wear showing?  A smile is a decision.  That’s all it is, but it is a decision that can really change your mental outlook.

If you have ever read any of Anthony Robbins materials, you know that he teaches that your physiology impacts your psychology.  One exercise he gives to prove the point is asking you to smile.  Not that fake “Yeah, I’m smiling cause you said to smile”, but a real smile, a genuine smile.  When you put it on, you should notice that your mood is lighter.  Now while wearing that genuine smile try to think a sad or angry thought WITHOUT changing your face or any other part of your physical demeanor.  You can’t do it!  See how powerful a smile is!  Oh, and they are really contagious too.  If you start wearing those really big genuine smiles all of the sudden you notice that more people around you are smiling too.

Anyhow back to the point, don’t decide to change everything about yourself because you made one mistake or one thing didn’t work out right.  Change is not bad, but change for the sake of change is not productive use of your time.  Its like your boss giving you busy work.  In the end you have done something but it didn’t change anything and really made no impact.  So if you are reinventing with me make certain that what you choose to do over makes sense to you.