Let me tell you something about this reinvention business: it’s not quite as simple as it sounds.
Whether you find yourself suddenly unemployed, an empty nester, or, like me, a serial reinventor, answering the question, “What are you going to do with the rest of your life?” can bring a lot of unwanted pressure. Don’t get me wrong, I know exactly how seductive the reinvention call can be. “Change Yourself in 10 Easy Steps!” “Discover Your Passion!” “Create the New You!” The messages are all but impossible to resist.I always wanted to be Tiger Woods. Not literally, although his life isn’t so bad. I just longed for that unbeatable combination of fierce talent and relentless focus. Instead, I became a “dabbler”. It started when I was fifteen. Decisions about college were beginning to loom. I figured it was time to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. After giving it an entire afternoon of serious thought, I announced to my mother that I wanted to join the Peace Corps. She burst out laughing. “You don’t even like people!” she chortled. She had a point. As a child, whenever friends came to visit my parents, I ran away and hid. Only the lure of cheese and crackers “for company” could bring me out. My dreams of saving Africa deflated, I retreated to my room to brood about other possible careers.
After four years of indecision as (what else?) a liberal arts major, I began to take the reinvention thing seriously. Since then, I have lived in five cities in four different states. My family likes to joke that when I get interested in a new place, I don’t just go there on vacation, I pick up and move. Who could resist the opportunity to create a new life out of thin air, in a place where no one knows that you’re a couch potato, socially inept, or unemployable? Believe me, change can be addictive.
For a long time, just moving and traveling to different places was enough to satisfy my thirst for change. In my thirties, I worked as a marketer in high tech and made great money. Then I decided that corporate life was not for me, and started a freelance communications business. Finally, I had the flexibility, independence and the variety I craved. It wasn’t enough.
