CBS Sunday Morning aired a cover story report by Mark Strassman on The Beatles last Sunday. Hard to believe it was 50 years ago they had their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. What fascinated me about the story was the part about how often the Beatles reinvented themselves. Not only did hairstyles and clothing change, so did the genre of music and how it was presented. Needless to say I have been thinking about reinventing myself since.
What an exciting thought – reinventing myself! What do you think? You could easily change your hairstyle like the Beatles did, or try different styles of clothing, or maybe change jobs completely. You could be a whole new you! Isn’t that what so many products advertise on television and the internet? And my shields went up!
Reinvention could be because of a sudden change in your life, a health issue or a love lost for example. It would be easy to see why you would want a new you. When you are feeling low you just want to be anywhere, or anyone, else. That's a good time to evaluate what you envision your future to be and how you think you can get there. Then you’re in a better position to take the steps needed to get moving on that path.
To me, reinvention is just another way of talking about change and it’s a process that can be empowering. Why? Because it’s about incorporating your experiences and weaving them into the fabric of your being. The Beatles used their experiences of meditation and time they spent with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India to influence The White Album. It couldn’t be any other way really. Whatever is going on around you is a perfect playground for your inner growth and choosing what direction you want your life to go.
If you like your direction and you feel excited about your life, do more of the same. If you don't then there’s work to do but growth and joy to be had when you play the game of reinvention. Start with forgiveness. When you can forgive what you don’t like about your life, your body, your partner, whatever, and come to a feeling of peace about it, the thought of being held back by it will naturally fall away. Your focus and effort will no longer be attached to it, leaving room for something better to come in.
However, you have to commit to this. It can’t be a sometimeish, when I’m in the mood sort of deal. Choose one aspect that you’d like to change and forgive it. You may have to forgive over and over. Whenever the thought about it arises you move to forgiveness as soon as it comes. One day you’ll realize that no thoughts have come up and you are actually at peace. Then you’ll also realize that you have moved from where you were.
If you really want to reinvent yourself, take a look at what is happening to you on the inside – that’s where growth and maturity happen. That’s where a new vision of yourself is born, and that’s where it will grow from. There is nothing outside of you that can make you change but everything that happens out there can influence your inner world.
And only when a reinvention starts from the inside is it meaningful and lasting.