Letters to the Editor

Time to Reinvent Yourself?

Have you met your strategic goals for 2012? 2011? 2010? With the end of 2012 rapidly approaching, planning personal and professional goals for 2013 has become a priority for people in business and entrepreneurship.

In planning for professional and personal goals for 2013, honesty is key. When your strategies aren’t working, the goal must be to figure out something new. This may be the time to reinvent yourself for the upcoming year.

Reinventing yourself is when you come to realize that the person you are, the career you are in, or the business you lead no longer fits with your future. These are the times when you must reassess who you are and what you are doing, come to terms with the things that aren’t working, and completely reinvent.

This is the point when the artist throws out the original canvas and starts again on a new canvas. If you reach the point where you feel you must reinvent yourself or your business, consider these three key strategies:

Start with a clean slate.
Trying to hold onto certain strategies that may have worked for you in the past is the surest way to prevent a reinvention. Start off with the mindset that the old you doesn’t exist anymore. Nothing you have done to this point happened or matters.

Decide what you want to be.
Remember, that thing you want to be can’t be the same as it once was. This is a tough reality to grasp because most of us spend so many years dreaming about achieving that one given thing. When it doesn’t work out, it’s tough to let go of the old dream. But here, we’re coming up with a new you, and that new you must do some soul-searching to determine what the best new path might be.

Get out and take action.
With most things in life, the first step is always the toughest. When you reinvent, that first step tends to be even tougher. But don’t let your fear cause you to drag your feet. Don’t stall. Don’t wait. Get out there and take action!

The important thing to remember is that you’re not the first person to reinvent yourself. Keep that in mind when it comes time to go back to the drawing board and you will be in better position to make the honest, accurate and appropriate decisions that will lead to greater success in the future.

Dr. R. Kay Green
CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions