Guest column and podcast: No Better Time to Reinvent by Jennifer Oliver O’Connell

No Better Time to Reinvent
by Jennifer Oliver O’Connell

I have spent a good majority of my working life as a contract, temporary and freelance worker. I have juggled a writing career with a technology career, and have successfully thrived and worked in the industrial age, the computer age, and now the online age! So, I have experience and a unique view on what it takes to Reinvent oneself: whether it’s for a new job, a new industry, or to achieve a particular life goal.

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For the past two years, I have worked with a group of people I have chosen to call “Transitioners.” Because of the great recession and the subsequent economic climate, these individuals have either lost their jobs or been downsized. While many of them simply require tools on how to search for work in this Online age of Social Media and Networking, about half have no interest in getting back into their same career field. These people have a vision for something more flexible, that offers better life balance, and that doesn’t require long commutes or personal and health compromises.

Because of this need, I’ve expanded my resource role to include Reinvention Coaching. Sound magical? It can be! Reinvention involves the same hard work you employ in looking for a new job, with the core focus on shifting your paradigm, and then learning to live in that new paradigm. Reinvention coaching is part Vision-Casting and part cheerleading, while also supplying practical tools, helps and resources to set someone on a different path. Whatever that path may be is up to the particular person.

So what precipitates someone Reinventing? I find it happens in certain phases of life:

One is a career change, whether it involves a new industry or a new role.

The other is a desire to achieve a specific goal. Goal setting is easy. Goal achievement requires transforming thought processes and life habits in order to accomplish the change.

And then there’s a major life change, such as divorce, empty nest syndrome, or changing physical or emotional circumstances. Along with career loss, many people have lost finances, homes, and their place in a community. Navigating these challenges requires a fresh start and a new perspective on what is essentially an unwanted change.

As a Reinvention Coach, I assist in visualizing a different career, life direction, or goal completion, and supply the prescriptions, resources and objective perspective that will result in achievement.

So what should someone thinking about Reinvention consider?

First, do you want to continue in the place, industry, or career that you’re in? Often, we’re immobilized because we feel stuck, or we just have no clue about the first step to take to move out of inertia.

Second, what is the cost of staying where you are? In terms of career, there are some industries that are simply GONE, and they will EVER return. Does it serve you to try to hold on to your place in this dying sphere, or would it better serve you to take your wealth of experience and marketable skills and position yourself for another industry?

Third, what do I need in order to move forward? For some, it will require a radical shift, for others it will require incorporating some new things and tweaking others. As a Reinvention Coach, I can diagnose and direct a person toward the required actions, and assist toward achievement, one step at a time.

Finally, Reinvention involves getting in touch with SELF-CARE. Whether it’s from doing a job you simply do not love, a jarring unwanted change, or simple career burnout, we develop unhealthy habits, and some have fallen into substance abuse. Core to Reinvention is learning to incorporate or reincorporate exercise, proper diet, supportive communities, and fresh attitudes and habits that build you up, rather than tear you down. Finding a holistic balance in your daily life will automatically filter down into your work and your environment.

That’s what Reinvention is all about. Illuminating a path, pointing toward a direction, and implementing the tools in order to move forward.

And there’s no better time than now! If you are interested, email me reinventioncoaching@gmail.com, and schedule a 45-minute consultation, where we can assess if it’s your time to Refocus, Rethink, and Reinvent!

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