You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
R. Buckminster Fuller
The ever-present topic of reinventing ourselves strikes an off-key chord in me. Words are the power we have to create the worlds we want. Using words to describe how we align with our core truth is the paint that colors how others see us. Because of the visceral feeling I got when I heard that term, it forced me to look at the meaning of the word.
The prefix re means to do again or go backward, meaning either to create/ design or fabricate/fake. To reinvent means to remake or re-do something thoroughly, to change it so much that it appears entirely new.
Are we genuinely changing completely when we exclaim we are reinventing ourselves?
We don’t toss away everything that works when building a better mousetrap. We look at what runs well and then make adjustments to improve it.
As far as reinventing the wheel, has anyone succeeded? We have taken the core function of the wheel and utilized it in new and innovative ways. Yet, the wheel’s foundational principle contributes to the innovation’s underlying functionality. The intrinsic value has not changed.
Our lives are a work in progress. Each step we have taken, every mistake we have made, and the comprehensive experiences we have had, are the elements that create and comprise the framework of who we are.
Every new endeavor is a compilation of our skills. We bring the wisdom and lessons from everything that has landed us where we are now. If we are transitioning from one field to another, we still bring in our lifetime of expertise.
We may don different hats, shifting our focus to new titles, yet we do not negate our prior achievements, professions, challenges, or failures. They constitute the totality of who we are, and the new hats worn benefit from those experiences.
Reinventing suggests compartmentalizing the entirety of our talents. Instead of looking at each new venture as something separate, a section or a small slice of who we are, we can see it as a continuation and expansion of our being.
The image of a blossom comes to mind when I think of becoming more. Each petal unfolds a skill, trait, emotion, or talent. Together they come to create who we are, and each stage of the blossom has its fullness.
Even when the petals dry and fall, they transform into nourishment for the soil or transmute into potpourri, not reinventing their source as a flower but extending their essence into a new form. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” implies that the names of things do not affect what they are.
When we remake, renew, revive, restore, refresh, reopen, or reawaken, we bring back to what was, not discarding the foundation of what is.
So I pose the question, does reinventing make sense to you? Are you discarding everything that has made you who you are to reinvent yourself into someone else?
I think it is an actual impossibility to do it genuinely. We cannot forget who we are unless, of course, we have amnesia.
Our strength is repackaging, relaunching, transforming, growing, and weaving together everything we have learned. Reinventing discounts the totality of our wholeness. It implies a subtraction of value rather than an addition.
Reframing the idea of reinventing brings me to the thought of returning to our source, embracing the uniqueness of us as individuals. Stop reinventing yourself and salute and honor the cumulative knowledge we have gained on this life journey. Embarking on a new venture is the next chapter in the adventure of our lives.
Remember, we all possess the inner fortitude to reach the dreams we have held within. Add desire and a little stick-with-it attitude, and the path to a fuller you is yours. Reinventing ourselves is a journey back to who we are meant to be; it is never too late to begin.
No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.
~Madonna
