The Art of Reinvention, Part 3

How's it going for you?  Have you made your outline following the questions that I posed previously; and have you begun your journey in actuality or are you living it out in your head first?

For some of us, working things out in our minds is what gives us comfort and the confidence to actually begin the task. Everyone has their own method of accomplishing their work.  Then again, for others of us, saying that we're working it out in our heads first is just a way for us to procrastinate and avoid taking action; so be honest with yourself.  Remember, there's no shame in asking for help.  I would venture to say that most things of great import require a little assistance; in the arena of moral support, if nothing else.

Please allow me to reiterate that a reinvention does not necessarily mean a huge or grandiose change.  It can be just a tweaking of the way that you think about issues; or choosing to broaden your horizons or expand your mind.  One of my favorite (para) phrases is, "If you don't like the road you're on, make yourself a new road."  That thought comes from the late Mrs. Annie Johnson of Stamps, Arkansas, who was the grandmother of the late (and fantastic!) Dr. Maya Angelou. In choosing to change her current circumstances, Mrs. Johnson said that she looked up the road and down the road, and since she didn't like either one, she decided to make herself a new road.  Now, although the term was probably not in vogue at the time, what Mrs. Annie Johnson did was practice the art of reinvention, and she achieved great success with that decision.  It took hard work and dedication on her part, but she decided what she wanted and she went after it.

My current venture in reinvention concerns the way I think about aging.  I never thought that I would have a problem with getting older, but then I don't think any of us really give it any real thought until we wake up and realize that not only are not twenty-five anymore, we're not even forty-five.  We look in the mirror and although we still look good, we definitely look older, and in a culture where youth is the end-all, be-all, it's very easy to allow a low-level panic to set in.  Then comes breaking the bank to buy all the following skin creams:  anti-wrinkle, anti-sag, pore minimizer, skin tone balancer, complexion brightener, collagen replenisher, etc., etc.  Yep, been there, done that, even as I pretended that I really wasn't bothered -- otherwise known as denial.  And it's not just the face...there's the body that decides to do its own thing.  Yes, gravity is real. (You can fight it with hard work, though... 77-yr old bodybuilder, Ernestine Shepherd)

The good news is that I finally admitted that I was having a problem about looking older (actually getting older is a great thing considering the alternative!) and my therapist pointed me to a very helpful, insightful, and humorous book, "Getting Over Getting Older," by Letty Cottin Pogrebin.  I admit that I read through it halfway and thought I had my problem licked.  Not so, although I'm happy to report that I'm now where I was when I began the process.  I now keep the book in plain view because it will be a reference book for another minute or two, I do believe.  I have made some progress on the body front, too, and have become more comfortable with (sometimes) allowing my curves to be free of constricting shapewear.  Honestly, some of those garments are bound (no pun intended) to fuse two or more organs together!

You always want to keep in mind that when you consider reinventing yourself, it's not something to be taken lightly and attempted just for its own sake.  Change for the sake of change is never a good idea.  What do you want to change and why?  Is the reason true and honest?  Is the considered change for you or for someone else?  Even if the change is something that does need to happen, if you haven't embraced it for yourself and are instead attempting to placate someone else, you won't achieve real and lasting success.

One more thing...

                                 "Where the mind goes, the behind follows."  --  Randolph Wilkerson