2 Reinventing yourself

Reinventing As discussed in Chapter 1, when some people go freelance, they still operate in the same ‘world’ as they did previously. This is particularly common following redundancies, or company restructuring. For other people, though, a complete change of scene is very appealing: if your career’s been in a rut, or if you’ve been through a turbulent time at home or at work, reinventing yourself may seem to be the key to a fresh start. That new beginning might result in you going freelance, but before you take the plunge, there are lots of things to consider.

As a word, ‘reinvention’ implies a process of deconstruction followed by reconstruction, and a resultant new thing or—as in this case—a new person who exhibits different talents and who pursues different opportunities. The intended ‘payback’ for reinvention is gaining something that you currently feel is missing in your life. This could be anything from a successful career, to a better financial situation, to a happier work–life balance, or a completely new lifestyle.

Reinventing yourself as a reaction to something or to a set of circumstances tends to result in a purely cosmetic change as it doesn’t get the root of why you want your life to be different. In order to reinvent yourself successfully and for the right reasons, you need to do it consciously and deliberately rather than as a knee-jerk reaction. This doesn’t mean for a moment that spontaneity and creativity have no role in a life change—indeed, they’re valuable forces in this process—but building in reality-checks as you go along will do you no harm at all.

Step one: Take stock

Many of us arrive at decision points in our careers unexpectedly. For most people these days, the planned career path is a myth. It’s unusual to find someone who decided what they wanted to do with their careers when they were at school and then followed the recommended route to get there. When people talk about their jobs, it’s much more common to hear how amazed they are at what they’ve ended up doing—listen out for how many times you hear the phrase ‘I just seemed to fall into it!’. It’s not surprising, then, that many of us eventually realise that we’re not doing what rewards us professionally, emotionally, culturally, or spiritually.

The pressures of modern life drive us towards making choices that bring an illusion of security, status, and success. We find a ‘good job’ and are sucked into the promotional slip stream while being paid an increasingly large salary for taking on additional responsibilities. At the same time, we accumulate benefits such as private health care and company pension schemes which make us reluctant to change our lives radically. Once we realise we’re unhappy, we try to rationalise our way out of it, convincing ourselves that we’ve invested too much in our organisation and our careers so far to risk starting again at the beginning. So we struggle on, perhaps resentfully, fantasising about how it could have been. If only . . .

Sometimes, we’re ‘fortunate’ enough to be assisted in overcoming our resistance to change. We’re made redundant, we suffer ill health, our family circumstances change, a significant relationship comes to an end, and so on. This external trigger often results in personal reinvention—and is often perceived to be a blessing in the long run.

The challenge for most people is to arrive at the decision to make adjustments in their lives before such a dramatic catalyst intervenes. Being able to sense the imbalance in your life, the drawbacks of your current job, and the gulf between who you are and who you’ve become is key to making meaningful personal changes. In this way, you can be conscious of what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and the likely pay-offs or penalties for doing so.

Below is a process to help you through the reinvention process:

1 Do a personal audit

It’s time to appraise your life from a personal and professional perspective. You could think of it as a ‘force-field analysis’, where you write your name in the centre of a clean sheet of paper and itemise your life’s pressures and disappointments on the left and the pleasures and delights on the right. Write down everything you think is relevant, including the interests and aspirations that you had early in your career and all the things that have given you happiness since then.

From this activity alone, you may be able to see where unacceptable pressures lie but if you can’t, highlight the ‘break points’ on both sides of the analysis in a highlighter pen so that you can easily identify the issues that really need to be addressed. The intention here is to find a way of swinging the balance of your life towards the pleasurable side of the diagram by drawing out the elements of your life that characterise you and your preferred role.

2 Explore your values and beliefs

If something’s preventing you from tapping into your natural talents and living your life in line with them, write it down at the bottom of the sheet of paper. These are the barriers that you have to overcome in order to achieve satisfactory reinvention. They usually manifest as fears, for example: ‘I’ll lose my income/pension/benefits’, ‘I have a dependent family and can’t risk letting them down’, ‘I’ve hefty financial commitments and won’t be able to meet these if I go freelance’, or ‘I can’t afford to go back and start something from the beginning at this stage of my career’.

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All the above are fears that you hold without question. So question them. Are they really true? Do they really matter? If you live your life according to these beliefs, how will you feel at the end of your working life, freelance or not? Is this acceptable to you?

3 Think about your dream scenario

Think about what you’d do if you were free from practical or financial limitations and write everything down at the top of your sheet of paper. This is a freeing exercise that may put you in touch with what it is you’d prefer to be doing.

Don’t censor your ideas or cast them aside on the basis that you don’t have enough money or security to achieve them. Put barriers to one side and remember that with a little imagination and inventiveness, there are ways around the perceived obstacles of money and security.

Step two: Plan carefully

If you like the work that you’re doing already, you’re part of the way there. In your case, you don’t need to ‘reinvent’ yourself, but ‘retarget’ your career. Your objective is to plan carefully for a freelance life.

1 First of all, think about your current skills and what you’d like to pursue.

2 If you feel there are gaps in your knowledge, ask yourself how you can fill them. Would you benefit from more training? Should you try to gain additional experience on-site before you leave the company you’re working for? For example, perhaps you could arrange to shadow a colleague who has the experience you’re hoping to gain.

3 Once you’ve done your research and are clear about what you want to do, think about how you can make the personal changes you’ve identified.

Do make sure you’ve got the experience you need before you take the plunge and go it alone.

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Once you’ve decided to become a freelancer and will be working for yourself from now on, you’ll still need an up-to-date CV. For example, you may well find that a new client is open to the prospect of working with you, but wants to see your CV before they commit. Or they may have to sell your services to a third party. So update your CV regularly and remember that you can always rewrite it as often as necessary so that it’s more targeted and relevant to your current situation.

Step three: Start making changes

Now you’ve done the thinking, you can start making changes, small or radical. Working through the process above will have allowed you to see your life laid out in front of you and should help you pinpoint the areas that need the most immediate attention. If you’ve a strong feeling about the need to change something but aren’t clear why, don’t try to reason your way out it; follow your instincts and see what happens.

If you curb your impulses by rationalising them, you’ll end up behaving in the same way time and time again. To others and indeed to yourself on some levels, your actions may not stand to reason but see what happens anyway—many people have benefited from taking risks at certain points in their life. Taking action first and reflecting later has probably been the pattern of your career to date so try something new, see if it works, then adopt or discard your initiative as appropriate.

Step four: Live the changes

It’s no good deciding to make changes but then not doing anything about it. Even if the changes seem alien to you to begin with, practise them until they feel normal. Act as if you’re the best artist in your field, the greatest writer, the most successful entrepreneur—whatever it is you want to achieve. It’s mind over matter; once you start behaving like the person you want to be, people will start treating you as if you are that person.

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You can’t change your life without changing your behaviour patterns, and this may feel strange to begin with. If you find this too hard, try starting with symbolic changes like your clothing, your hairstyle, or your car. You could even throw away the television! By doing this, you’ll create new reactions in others, or you’ll find that you’re introduced to new people who will help draw you further into your desired—freelance—self.

As you work through Steps one to four above, you’ll see that reinvention isn’t really what’s going on here. The effect is reinvention; the fact is that you’re bringing to the surface a latent part of your character that seeks full and happy expression. Make the decision to live the way you want to—fully and without apology. What’s the worst that can happen?

Common mistakes

You rush it

Some people decide to make radical changes in their lives and jump into a reinvention of themselves noisily and clumsily. This only leads to disappointment. Although enthusiasm is vital for any attempts at personal change, it needs to be balanced with considered decisions and a deep understanding of yourself. Without these, you’ll make changes that don’t last and end up feeling disillusioned and apathetic. Work through the process above and ask a trusted friend to help you if you feel you’re getting lost along the way—someone else’s perceptions and feedback can be very helpful in keeping you on track.

You feel pressurised by others

There are many pressures driving people towards feeling inadequate if they don’t do something ‘momentous’ with their lives. There’s no ‘rule’ for what you should be, however, so don’t get pushed into reinventing yourself for the wrong reasons. Always make sure that it’s your choice that is driving your desire for change and not external pressure or some ‘ideal’ that you’ve adopted. Being happy with who you are should be your objective, not change for change’s sake.

You pretend to be something you’re not

Reinventing yourself isn’t just a marketing exercise, although it may help you to market yourself successfully in your chosen professional area. People are quick to pick up on others who they think are just ‘putting on’ a new personality or way of acting, so be who you really are, for the right reasons.

STEPS TO SUCCESS

Assess your values and beliefs and identify anything that prevents you from fulfilling these.

Know the ideal situation you would like to live in and decide what you will need to change to get you there. You need to be focused on your objectives before you go freelance.

Don’t over-rationalise—follow your instincts and take action.

Don’t rush the process—if you take your time and think carefully about what you’d like to achieve, you’re much less likely to run out of steam if things don’t change immediately.

Don’t be pushed into radical changes by other people. What works for them may not work for you.

Change only for you and to be the person you really are.