Personal reinvention and the power of renewed purpose in your life can have profound impacts on your happiness, creativity, and outlook.

The need to possess a sense that our lives are lived with purpose and that we are always progressing forward is within our DNA.

Aristotle defined purpose in life as using reason and language to form friendships and relationships, control our appetites and emotions, cultivate our moral and intellectual virtues, and observe our place in the universe. These elements, which set us apart from our animal counterparts, are all related to human progress. We have a built-in need to continually advance ourselves in all these areas. However, how successful we are at doing this largely depends on our creativity and confidence, driven by our intuitive health. When our emotional state is healthy, we are able to move forward unhindered and end up places we may never have initially imagined. In Moving Through Walls, I present four foundational constructs that will help you move towards new and greater horizons: openness, faith, (belief in and vision of a) future, and forgiveness (MTW, page 13).

When you stop moving forward, you stagnate. Stagnation and repeating rituals (without modifying them to allow for growth and a deeper connection to the intent behind your actions) may produce a monotony that can limit creativity and confidence over time, with the potential resulting state of emotional indifference. This indifference can insulate from feeling the natural need to progress and eventually encase you in thick walls that isolate.

When we lack belief in our own future, our natural need for progress can become a liability to ourselves. Aristotle theorized that the difference between animals and plants is movement. This is why a person who is devoid of movement is said to be in a vegetative state. Our brains get exercise through movement in the form of constant learning; our emotions experience movement as we get to know ourselves better and develop a deeper consciousness. A neutral non-growth state can lead to real regressive trouble in our lives. In turn, this affects our sense of self-worth, which depreciates, and negatively impacts our relationships, emotions, and eventually our sense of belonging.

Most of the career-changing events in my life happened as a result of a natural forward momentum. Serendipitous opportunistic developments presented themselves as a by-product of my life trajectory at the time, which was in turn driven by my primary life needs. As an entrepreneur, I find that everything I do creates other doors that can be opened. These unplanned opportunities evolve on their own when I am following the course of my forward trajectory.

Unlike unplanned events that result from momentum, planned personal developments are events by which you reinvent yourself based on realizing a personal purpose. A planned reinvention can lead to a material shift in your life and is almost always motivated by a personal purpose. A calling if you will.

A clear vision of a future you want and are now ready to realize provides the energy that drives you forward into the unknown. To plan a reinvention, you will need to be quite passionate about whatever it is that has caused you to shift gears. You will need to draw on strong self-confidence to counter the fear of the risks involved. When it comes to redefining yourself, the road can be lonely, and you will face moments of doubt. Those “What the hell am I doing here?!” moments.

For me, writing a book was born out of an epiphany of purpose. I had identified something that I wanted to do and was ready to make a shift in my life and do something about it.

A planned reinvention of your self happens when you identify what you want and are ready to make that happen, it is an answer to a higher calling from within

Writing Moving Through Walls was a hyper-focused commitment and a daring to go outside of my comfort zone, by exposing personal details about my life. I didn’t want the book to be a treatise from a theoretical ivory tower, I wanted it to be real and true, and that could only come from putting my own life on display. Dealing with the subject of forgiveness, in particular, required me to be true to my experience and get personal (MTW, page 18).

When you commit to a planned reinvention of yourself, there can be very positive and material shifts in your life. A planned reinvention will take a great deal of perseverance and belief; a willingness to take risks; and a focus on bringing your goals to the finish line. Whether it’s a personal undertaking or starting a new business, a new project powered by passion and purpose can act as an exciting new beginning in your life that will renew and rejuvenate you. The finish line tastes sweet and is a powerful accelerator in life (MTW, page 155, Accelerate).

MTW Practice Alert:

Launching a planned reinvention is a life accelerator and creates momentum that will in turn fund your sense of self-worth and goes on to generate more confidence and belief in yourself. Remember, it’s not about failing to succeed, it’s about failing to put your best foot forward and following your ambition (MTW, page 233, Unleash Your Greatness).

When you are “all in,” you will achieve and grow parts of yourself that you really love. The momentum generated is going to bring more creativity, happiness, and peace into your life, which will deepen the relationships most important to you. From your center out, you will serve to make the world a better place. Wow! And not only that but you will kickstart this incredibly positive and exciting momentum that will cause a re-birth to your life on all fronts.

You may choose to launch a planned reinvention for a material purpose, but the benefits will almost always surpass any financial reward. You will likely be inspired by your renewed sense of purpose and how the new you affects everything around you. And here is the best part. When you pursue what is right for you, everything that you need will fall into place. This is not magic; it will happen and it’s proof that you are doing what is most purposeful to you. Whenever I have committed to something that is purposeful, is driven by passion, is good for me, and that I am meant to be doing, the (financial) rewards find me—I needn’t look for them.

“I find that when I am doing what I am meant to do the rewards find me.”

Figuring out what you want and acting on this knowingness in the quest for reinvention is the most powerful opportunity for personal fulfilment. Once you know what you want, the “how” questions will almost always be answered as needed (MTW, page 57, Faith). And when you look back it will be uncanny to see how every person you met and every decision you made contributed to everything that resulted, as if you were part of some master plan where it was all preordained.

Reinvention Alert:

Shake up the routines and rituals you have become accustomed to.
Question 1: How much of what you do is rote?
Question 2: How much of what you do is done with intention and purpose?

“Infuse your actions with conscious intent to free your mind of its own practice restraints.”

Routines without intent and the monotony they produce will eventually stymie your creative powers. Imagination is all important for your brain, your health, and your emotional state. It is easy to get stuck because daily rituals are safe, and it’s natural to seek security in what makes us feel safe. The problem I believe is when our daily routines become counterproductive to our personal growth. Over a prolonged period, safety networks against taking risks and acting on our impulses, making us more predictable.

Reinvention requires changing up our routines, our brains have to now think in new ways. Imagine you have memorized a maze and then suddenly the paths change and the walls shift to block routes that were previously open. Now you have to learn a new way to get to your destination. When we are challenged to consider alternatives in our life, we force our minds to open and turn on our creative senses. This, in turn, can bring fresh and exciting newness to our lives. That newness gets us thinking about our future. When we change, we rewire our being and bring new positive energy to a future that might have been stagnant or stuck.

Changing things up in your life is good for you and reignites consciousness of your existence. Planned reinvention can be a very rewarding experience.

P.S. Alert:

Here is a link to a cool YouTube clip from Casey Neistat entitled “Do What You Can’t”. Most of my early life, I experienced people telling me what I couldn’t do. It is easier for people around us to point out our limitations than our potential.