How to Reinvent Yourself (a 7-point checklist I use)
It’s easy to forget, but nice to remember – we can be whoever we want to be. So this is my guide and checklist on how to reinvent yourself.
I’m a musician who travels and the tips in this post are the things I do to reset myself and recreate my story. I see this process as a creative one.
So let’s get right into it.
What Does Reinventing Yourself Mean?
Reinventing yourself is the creative act of reflecting on your current self and adopting changes or new traits to better suit your goals, preferences or lifestyle.
Reinventing yourself is artistic. It’s also normal and something we may do multiple times throughout life, which makes sense.
Life is, after all, not static. Our circumstances, goals, lifestyle and experiences are always changing.
So our personality and sense of self evolve in kind (often naturally).
But sometimes, we can feel stuck, like we’re playing a role that doesn't quite match our true identity and isn’t conducive to reaching our goals or fulfilling our purpose.
In these situations, it may be time to reassess things and do an update (like a computer program).
Because what is personality and behavior but our brain’s software program?
I like this analogy – not to sound too reductionist or anything.
So let’s dig deeper and look at why we may want to reinvent ourselves.
Why Reinvent Yourself?
If you’ve landed on this post, you probably already know why you’re reinventing yourself.
But there are lots of benefits or reasons worth highlighting. So let’s cover a few that stand out.
Here are some common reasons/benefits for reinventing yourself:
Personal growth
Professional growth
Boost your self awareness
Your circumstances, lifestyle or interests have changed
You feel unfulfilled or discontent with how things are as is
For creativity and self expression
Recommended: An Epic List of Epic Creative Outlets
How to Reinvent Yourself (my 7-point checklist)
Ready to create the new version of yourself? Epic.
This is how I do it.
1. Identify Who You Are Now
Who are you?
And I mean, who are you really?
It’s difficult to be completely honest here. We all have bad habits or parts about ourselves that we want to change or we’re not particularly proud of (well, most of us do, at least).
So this first step is about shining a light on those parts of ourselves (both the things we like and the things we don’t).
In order to effectively reinvent ourselves, knowing our baseline is essential. Otherwise, it’s like trying to run a race but you don’t know where the starting line is.
You can try meandering around, but reaching you’ll feel pretty lost and aimless.
So list out your character traits and the key aspects about yourself and who you are. Then, when you’re done, move on to the next step.
2. Embrace Who You Are Now
Accepting and embracing who you are is important to evolve who you are.
This is my experience, at least.
This has to do with addressing any regrets you may have, embracing past mistakes or missed opportunities and accepting any habits you may not be particularly proud of.
I mean, sh*t, we’re human. It’s so incredibly normal, universal and expected to have a few missteps.
So the best way to move past these things is to accept and embrace them.
Maybe they were learning moments or maybe they were necessary and will somehow help you connect some dots down the road (you just may not see how yet).
Whatever the case, practice embracing who you are now. This will make reinventing yourself smoother and more effective.
3. Do More New Things
New you is different. They do different things and live in a different way.
So let’s start embodying this persona by, well, doing new things. It’s a pretty straightforward formula.
So what are some things you’ve always wanted to try?
What did you used to do that you don’t anymore?
Or even, what scares you?
Dabbling in a variety of new things is a great way to get clarity on who you want to become and how you want to reinvent yourself.
You may even surprise yourself.
For some inspiration, you can check out my list of my favorite creative outlets. But anything goes here – snowboarding, coding, skydiving, walking dogs…whatever you want!
Just listen to your intuition and pay attention to things that put you in a flow state or that you act on spontaneously. These are important clues about what your true passions are.
4. Travel
In my view, one of the best (and fastest) ways to reinvent yourself is to travel.
Whether you stay closer to home or you book a flight to a new country, travel changes you. There’s no way around it.
Experiencing new places and cultures forces you out of comfort zones and creates a new version of you. It’s one of the first side effects I noticed after traveling abroad.
I became more confident, humble and comfortable with myself. The scope of what I believe I can or can’t do has completely changed.
My default mode is optimism. So I’ve always believed that anything and everything is possible (yea, I’m a dreamer).
But I always believed this idea more so for other people (not for myself). Travel helped me to shed this false belief.
Of course, not everyone can just hop on a plane to a new country on a whim. There are plenty of logistical hurdles and personal circumstances can make this unrealistic.
But if you can swing it, this is one of the best and most exciting ways to reinvent yourself.
Recommended: The Epic Benefits of Solo Travel
5. Decide How You Want to Evolve
At this point, you’ve identified (and embraced) who you currently are and you’ve dabbled in some new experiences.
Now it’s time for some self reflection.
How do you want to evolve and change? What new experiences and things resonated with you most?
How exactly do you want to reinvent yourself?
Now is the time to make a list of ideal characteristics and lifestyle traits you’d like to embody. Pick the things that resonate with you most.
Of course, you can always change things later. So don’t feel like this is some permanent decision.
You are creating your new persona, or avatar. Essentially, we’re creating an alter ego at this stage.
So write down your ideal life – down to every last detail. From the clothes you’re wearing to your morning routine, personality and inner circle.
The more details, the better.
Recommended: Self Reflection + How to Look Within
6. Embody Your New Self
After you’ve created your new persona, it’s time to try it on for size.
It’s time to embody your new self. This is the exciting, active phase of reinventing yourself. For me, it helps to imagine myself as an actor playing a role.
It’s more fun and puts me in a creative mindset (which is helpful for this stage).
Embodying your new self is about mindset and actively living your new persona. But it also helps to use visualization.
We can imagine our future selves, the emotions we’re feeling and the life we’re living before it ever happens.
It’s a popular tool that’s actually pretty effective. Even Olympic athletes use it to enhance their sports performance.
So, after embodying your new self, how long does it take to actually reinvent yourself?
Of course, this varies from person to person and depends on context and circumstances. For some people, it may be instantaneous. For others, it could take months (or longer).
But remember, it’s less about the destination and more about showing up everyday, not quitting and enjoying the process.
7. Stack New Cards
There’s one more thing that will add some serious fuel to the reinvention fire.
It’s stacking the deck in our favor. After all, we do better when our environment and the people in our lives support our goals.
So for me, I like to stack the cards in my favor in three key ways:
My inner circle
The people in my life
My outer circle
The content I consume
My environment
The places I spend the most time in
While you may not be able to change all three of these things, even adjusting just one area can have a big impact.
For example, it’s hard to meet new people (or disconnect from existing groups), but redecorating your space(s) to be more inspiring isn’t.
So start small. But just start stacking new cards in favor of your new persona.
Our environments and the people in our lives play a big role in who we are.
Conclusion (stay patient)
The most important thing to remember when reinventing yourself is to go easy on yourself and stay patient.
Small steps add up to serious leaps over time.
So have a realistic timeline and manage your expectations. And most importantly, enjoy the ride. It’s an epic adventure that’s actually more like creative play.
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