How to reinvent yourself through better thinking

As is typical for any given day in January, I’m sure there are quite a few of us who have words withourselves and challenge ourselves by thinking “hey, why don’t you reinvent yourself some how?”. So that’s what I’d like to help you with today. The new year is always a time for new starts and fresh thinking. We might not need to turn our lives upside down, but we can’t help trying to inject a bit of life into what we do. Sounds like the perfect time for spot of reinvention!

Reinvent yourself

But reinvention doesn’t always need to happen on the outside, it can happen on the inside. In today’s episode I want to encourage you to think about reinventing how you express yourself.

By talking about how we feel, what we do and what we think in a different way, can help to reinvigorate our relationships and perceptions, and ultimately our life experience. Re-engaging with others like this can bring about new conversations and insights. And new conversations and insights might lead to new opportunities and life experiences.

When I say reinvent yourself, I guess a more accurate way of describing it would be to reinvent how you express yourself. For me there are a few ways that you can do that and that’s what I talk about on today’s show;

Reinvent yourself by changing the language you use

I don’t mean learn a new language like French or Spanish. Instead I’m inviting you to add some new vocabulary to your repertoire so that you can express how you feel and think more specifically and eloquently.  In doing so, you’re more likely to reveal a more authentic you, which will help you to connect better with others which in turn will help you to build stronger relationships.

When describing how we feel, there are so many words available to us, and yet we tend to use the same handful. The habits that we have in our life, extend to the words that we habitually use. How about injecting some new words into your emotional vocabulary? Hear some new suggestions for words to describe your emotional landscape in the podcast.

Reinvent yourself by ditching the negatives

Ditch the negative language and negative perspective. Whether you’re using negative language because you’re always complaining, or because you tend to see the negative in everything, it might be time to pull back a tad. No-one wants to be surrounded by negativity. There is good and bad in everything, so how about re-framing your perspective occasionally to see the positive aspects.

Reinvent yourself by giving yourself a new job title

If there’s one question that most of us face time and time again it’s this one… “And, what do you do?” So how about reinventing the way you answer it?  There was a great article on Inc.com encouraging business leaders to let employees pick their own job titles. I love this idea and encourage it wholeheartedly. But even if you’re not in charge of such decisions, it can be useful to consider your own job title and how you might change it. Doing so forces you to really consider what it is that you actually do and what value you really add. Looking at our roles in this way can be enough to reinvigorate our enthusiasm and motivation for what we do as we reconnect with why we’re doing it.

Reinvent yourself by changing your bio

In this digital age, when we express ourselves, it’s not just verbally, but it’s also online. And the one place we do that most often is on social media in our bios. It’s where you get to state your identity for others to read and decide whether they want you in their life. So while we’re reinventing how we want to express our inner selves, this seems a great, yet practical, place to start. If you’re re-writing your bio, it’s worth taking your time to craft a good one. If you have your own website, the likelihood is that your about page is the most visited page on your site. Your bio is important so don’t rush it. Other tips for writing a great bio include

• If it’s on your personal site, write it in the first person. If it appears on a company site, then third person is better.
• Use storytelling to engage on an emotional level and create interest.
• Avoid showing off. No one likes a show-off.
• Share your human side. It’s OK to talk about failures and your vulnerabilities.
• Include aspects of your personal life; your passions, hobbies or reveal your inner geek. It’s these things that people will connect with.

When you’re able to express who you are and what you’re thinking more authentically, you’ll notice shifts begin to take place as people feel better able to connect with you and trust you. So even though you didn’t completely reinvent yourself, by doing these simple things you’re reinventing your thinking which can often feel like actually did reinvent yourself. Because on some level you did.