If you love your job and it is rewarding and you work for a great company then there may be no need to reinvent your career.  However, if you have been laid off or you just cannot take another day at your job, then let us look at some examples of people who successfully made the transition in reinventing their careers.  Think of it as recycling your knowledge base to create a new career or business.

Here are some examples of successful career transitions:

Example #1: From District Attorney to Senate:
Amy Klobuchar went from being a District Attorney to a United States Senator after she gave birth to a child and was kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours. She helped pass State legislation that made it a mandatory 48 hours of staying in the hospital. She campaigned for a Senate seat for the state of Minnesota and did not quit her job while campaigning. She visited 87 Minnesota counties at night and on the weekends. She raised 9 million dollars. She is the first woman to be elected to the Senate from the Great State of Minnesota.  When I look at her values, I see that she was always service oriented. She was a grassroots community type of person and she reinvented her job but it is the same type of job, just with a broader audience.

Example #2: From Lawyer to Personal Trainer:
A lawyer, in between jobs, and recently divorced, loved her aerobic classes every week. The teacher was out one day and she was asked to teach the class. She became intrigued with the idea of becoming a personal trainer. She made the investment and became a certified personal trainer and pilates instructor.  She loves what she does although admittedly, she does not have health insurance. Obviously this person is now honoring her penchant for discipline and strong desire for personal freedom.  

Example #3: From Sales to Yarn Lady:
A sales person for a steel company became a yarn lady. One day, she was driving by her veterinarians office and saw a “Wool for Sale” sign in the window. An avid knitter, she stopped and bought the yarn and saw two newborn lambs and fell in love with them and bought them, right there and then. She grew up with a grandmother that taught her how to knit and spin wool. She taught herself how to shear the lamb’s wool and joined the state Sheep Breeders Association. She became an expert. She started focusing on bright unexpected colors. She kept her day job and took four years to transition fully into her wool company. In fact, she hired a sales person as business became brisk. And later on, she quit her day job.  Today, she has a flock of 16 sheep and 18 employees across the country. Her yarn is sold in several hundred shops nationwide.  I love this story because it blends a skill learned in childhood with the power of sales that she learned as an adult.

Example #4 From HR Manager to Substitute Teacher:
After retiring from a fortune 500 company and securing a stable pension, this lady decided to become a substitute teacher at her local high school. First she determined that she always wanted to teach. She went back to college and took courses in sociology which was her life long dream and then she got her teacher’s certification. She was not particularly interested in going back to work full time so decided to become a substitute teacher. She feels fulfilled and happy and her students love her.  This woman always wanted to be a teacher but went the HR way because it seemed more prudent at the time. She was able to live her childhood dream as a retiree. She also took a huge cut in pay but she is very happy.

Example #5 From Stay at Home Mom to Coffee Importer:
A stay at home mom used 5K in seed money to become a coffee importer. She went on vacation to El-Salvador and visited a coffee farm. She felt very connected to the sixty year old woman that ran the coffee farm and could relate to her inspiring story as a woman and mother. She decided she wanted to help this woman and came back to the States and bought 1000 pounds of coffee beans from this woman in El-Salvador. She packaged the coffee in smaller packs and bought foil coffee packs on ebay for ten cents a piece and marketed the coffee to upscale coffee shops in Kansas for twelve dollars a pound.  As the owner of Mother Earth Coffee company, she recently entered into a contract with a national gourmet grocer and now has commitments of 37,500 pounds of coffee for that client. What struck me about this woman is that she wanted to help another woman that she felt she could relate to and got inspired by that.

You can see that just walking down the street can change how you think and ignite creativity within you. From there you can totally reinvent your career.

Are you aware of the social system that you belong to? Are you giving to it? Are you taking from it? Being deliberate about your social system is critical to your life reinvention process. There are some old relationships that you want to rekindle. There are some you want to let go of. Let them go. Rekindle those that matter.

Whenever we engage with our social system our brains continuously scan for information that assess whether the person we are engaging in is a threat or a reward. If we perceive an interaction as a threat, we recoil and if perceive it as a reward, we engage more fully.

Some of us, having focused on work and career for so many years may have neglected to develop strong social skills and we end up unconsciously reacting to interactions with other people as threats.

Be more deliberate in your interactions and look for those reward experiences and enjoy them. The reward experiences create the release of hormones and chemicals in our bodies that enhance our health and well-being. The reward experiences are powerful and we want to follow the trial that they leave behind.

Within these social relationships, do not forget your intimate relationships. If you are intimately involved with someone, get physical in an affectionate way and make it part of your weekly and daily routine to incorporate touch and affection into your life. If you have a partner, reinvent your sex life! It is important.

Did you know that if a baby is not held and touched by other humans, the baby dies? What do you think happens with that when we grow up? We still need touch, physical and emotional connection.  It is part of our neural wiring.

So expand your social networks. Take risks. Enjoy new connections. Experience the rewards of positive relationships. Look for those relationships across multiple dimensions. Enjoy lots of hugs and smiles. Give them and take them.

Relate with people from all age groups. Kids. The Elderly. People with Down’s Syndrome. Kids with autism. Disadvantaged kids. Intellectuals. College students. Blue Collar workers. White collar workers. People outside your own race. People outside your sexual orientation.

When you stretch your social network like this, you are developing new neural patterns that reduce your brain’s perception of threats and overall releases hormones of reward which include oxytocin.

Sure, it may feel too risky to develop these relationships. However, the rewards are great. There is an element of courage that you want to develop so that you find yourself thriving in any situation. Remember, you are a whole person, wonderful, full of wealth and gifts and when you engage with someone else, you get to share that component of yourself.

As you focus on your social system, you will discover that you have a renewed sense of appreciation and gratitude for the loved ones in your life. They are part of your wealth. Having a wealth of love is important to your ability to have an abundance mindset. So as you go about reinventing your life and creating an abundance mindset, enjoy the rich rewards of a wonderful, safe and supportive social system.

You may notice that over time, acquiring such things loses its luster and leaves you hungry for something more meaningful. Sometimes, we end up acquiring so many material things that it just becomes expensive clutter.

As you reinvent your life, you want to experience more abundance. Your abundance is all around you. You may just have to get rid of the clutter to see it. Your clutter is not an indication of your abundance. It is an indication of stagnation. However, it is easier to de-clutter and simplify your environment when you first de-clutter your mind.

Your thoughts create your reality.  Your senses interpret what is going on in your environment and that information feeds your thoughts. Therefore, if you want to experience more abundance in your life, you want to check in with the information that your senses of smell, taste, touch, vision and sound are transmitting to your thoughts.  Change what you are looking out by clearing out clutter and changing your environment.

Look around where you are right now. Is it cluttered? Do you have piles of paper all over the place? It is merely a reflection of what is going on in your mind and in your emotions. You may be feeling overwhelmed and your environment is merely reflecting that to you.  

Usually, you will find that when you take the time and energy to loving release all the excess clutter in your life, you are creating space for the new figuratively and energetically.

~Clean out that den, the garage or the attic space.
~Clean out those old pots and pans.
~Clean out the cabinet that has all those old plastic containers from the chinese restaurant and store bought sauces.
~Clean out the linen closet and donate those old sheets and towels from 25 years ago when you were in college.
~Clean out the folders where you keep bills from four years ago.
~Clean out your bookshelves. No need for those books from graduate school 20 years ago. Most of them are now obsolete.

As you do this, you will find yourself feeling fresh and invigorated. I am a big advocate of donating the things you no longer want to a responsible organization that will make use of them. Also, donate books to organizations that will put them in the right hands.

In addition, as you de-clutter and simplify your life, find new ways to reconnect with nature. Reconnecting with nature actually helps brains reorganize and helps new habits attach. Our bodies produce vitamin D when we are in sunshine and we release feel good hormones when we are in nature and when we exercise. As you go through transitions, movement, sunshine and nature will help your body process those emotions and changes.

Our bodies have an electromagnetic capacity and so does the earth. When we walk barefoot in the dirt or in grass, I believe we are doing something very good for our bodies as we connect those two energies.

In fact, according to some ancient Eastern philosophies, life-force energy called Chi can be absorbed through the soles of the feet. Ground Chi is absorbed automatically and unconsciously when walking barefoot, which increases the amount of Chi absorbed by the body. It is said that you can consciously learn to absorb more Chi from the ground as you walk to increase your vitality, your capacity to do more work and your ability to think more clearly. Chi is akin to your soul or your spirit in Western traditions.

To create more abundance in your life, create the space for the abundance to come in by clearing your clutter and reconnecting with nature.

What is something you always wanted to do but never took the time to do? For example, surfing, attending cooking classes, taking a photography class. Think of something fun and childlike and not something work related.

I suspect that you have spent many years pursuing knowledge and education while focusing on your career. There are parts of yourself that you have neglected and are now crying out for attention. That is why I ask you what is something you always wanted to do but never did. Those parts of you are crying out to be heard.

You have such a depth of wealth, inside wealth, that you can tap into and create a wonderful life from. That wealth is part of the fullness of who you are. Living from the fullness of who you are is critical to your success. Success is not a partial or compartmental phenomenon but we all treat it like that.

Everyone wants to be successful. Success is encoded in our DNA. One of the critical human needs, is the need for significance in our uniqueness and individuality. This need for significance drives us to pursue success. However, something gets mistranslated in this pursuit of success. The point is that success is already ours. It is not something elusive that we want to chase after. Instead, it is something that is already ours as it is encoded in each of the cells in our body.

Therefore, our objective is to practice success, not pursue it.

Let us redefine success. If you look up “success” in the dictionary, you will find a definition that says: the attainment of wealth, position, honors or the like. What is missing in this definition?

“Happiness!”

Ingrained in our psyche is a definition of success that includes wealth and honors but not “happiness.” Maybe this is why you have felt unfulfilled in your “successful” job. Our entire educational system and socialization is about achieving success and wealth and position and honors. Now, your happiness is asking for some space in your life.

Did you know that happy people make about a million dollars more in their lifetime than unhappy people? Marci Schimoff in her book, “Happy for No Reason” teaches us that happiness is a habit that is worthwhile creating. Some people are naturally happy and some are not. You can cultivate habits that will help you create more happiness in your life. As you focus on creating more happiness in your life you will find that you are also making more money.  

Think of it this way, unconsciously have been waiting for your knight in shining armor to ride in on a white horse and “he” never came. You thought your job, your partner, your car, your accomplishments were your “knight.”

Well, I have breaking news for you. “He” is not coming but you do still get the white horse! Except, you are riding into your life on your white horse and you have been riding it for a long time unaware. You are your own heroine!

For men, you thought you would experience grand satisfaction when you were able to provide for your family. And you did. But that feeling of satisfaction fizzed out and remains elusive. Now what? Your manhood is not tied into how much money you make. I promise you. This is a myth that men share. You are far more precious to your family and kids than how much money you make. You are far more precious to yourself than how much money you make.

So take the time to redefine success for yourself. Include in your definition of success play and laughter. Include happiness in it. Include feeling content and satisfied now in it. This is how you attract and create abundance. And finally, enjoy success now! Not later.

The most important thing in developing a new habit is to be conscious about it. Realize that what you are doing is programming your brain as if you are programming a computer. Repetition is what creates a habit. However, repetition can feel mundane and ineffective.

Practice mindfulness as you develop a new habit and understand that it takes your body and mind time to take on this new programing. So, start out slow and in bite sized increments. Be focused on enjoying the new experience. Even when the experience starts feeling repetitive, take the time to connect with the vision of what you intend. As with most things, begin the pursuit of the particular habit with the end in mind.

You have heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. You have also heard that it may actually take 28 days. In 1960, a plastic surgeon, Dr. Maxwell Maltz noticed that amputees took an average of 21 days to adjust to the loss of a limb and he proposed that it takes people an average of 21 days to adjust to any new change.

However, new research recently published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, details the findings of a study done with 96 people who were interested in forming a new habit each day such as eating a piece of fruit with lunch or doing a 15 minute run each day. Each participant was asked to rate how automatic the activity felt each day and that ranged from “hard not to do” and “done without thinking.”  On average, the participants reached a plateau where the habit was automatic after 66 days.

Therefore, when you are creating a new habit, stick with it, every day if possible, for at least two months or more.  Start developing meaningful and mindful rituals that signal certain emotions to your brain. For instance, meditating daily for as little as 15 minutes is proven to have significant impact on your level of stress and coping capacity.

Also, be sure to include in your habits play and fun, creative expression and new experiences. We are a product of our thoughts beliefs and emotions. It is important to bring all these three factors into your quest to develop new habits and make the necessary changes.

If you take a habit and stay on it for at least two months on a daily basis, at the end of the year you would have acquired six new habits. Here are habits that are life enhancing and will support you in the long term:

~Daily movement or exercise.
~Drinking adequate amounts of water daily.
~Eating at least one piece of fruit every day.
~Daily journaling.
~Eliminating the white stuff from your nourishment.
~Eating fresh veggies every day.
~Listening to soothing music every day.
~Meditating every day.
~Daily laughter and playtime.
~Reading and absorbing affirmations.
~Enjoying your hobby each and every day.
~Being more positive in your thinking.

I encourage you to only work on one habit at a time for at least thirty days before you add another habit. This way, you get used to the habit. However, remember, stick with each habit for at least sixty days for maximum effect.

First, understand that you have a wealth of wisdom within.
Second, understand that you are hungry for more direction in your life. That is why you are on this quest.
Third, understand that everything you want, need or desire is available to you in full abundance.

If you are on the spiritual path, you have probably invested time and energy into developing yourself. Well, now you want some direction in order to channel all that energy and knowledge.
You already know the “who” of your life. You know who you are.

Next smart question to ask yourself is, “How do I want to live out the “why” of my life? To be able to answer this question, you want to know your purpose in life.

Many people just do not take the time to ask themselves what their purpose is. You have a purpose that is grand, beautiful, fulfilling and of service to others.

I know that because that is what purpose is about. It is about living your life beyond yourself.  It is about living a life that is uniquely yours, being relevant, and impacting others positively.

You got an education because you wanted to live out a life of purpose. Before you got into the career you are in right now, you had fantasies about it. You had fantasies about how it would all play out. When you thought about your career, your thought you would feel successful and fulfilled. However, you may be feeling off track from your purpose.

Your life purpose is your True North – Your guiding compass for your life.

If you are currently experiencing burnout from your career or your job, congratulations! This is information from your genius within that your work life is not in alignment with your life purpose.

So, if you do not know it yet, you want to get super clear about what your life purpose is. How?

Here is a simple exercise to tap into your life purpose:

Think back to your childhood, when you were about five or six. What was your favorite activity? What activity did you do that got you in trouble?

This is an important exercise. You can read the clues from this era in your life. For instance, if you loved to play dress up and steal your mom’s lipstick and wear it, chances are that you are a real fashionista. You might discover that you love fashion so much, you make a career change and get into the fashion industry. If as a kid you loved taking the back of the tv apart, then what are you building today?

You may have liked to write and read. Those attributes will continue in your life now. So follow the breadcrumbs from that trail.  These are all indicators of your life purpose.

Now, for the select few on planet earth, they may be very aware that their life purpose is tied into something very specific such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. However, for the rest of us , that may not be the case. Don’t despair! If you cannot pin point just one thing, you might actually have many different ones. That is OK, too. Remember that life is a continuous journey and not just a destination.

What is important is living purposefully. Living purposefully means living mindfully with your values in mind so that you can best serve yourself and the rest of the world.

Implement mindfulness tools into your daily life and you will be pleased with the results.

You may want to keep several types of journals. You may want to keep an unlined journal and a lined journal. This is where you get to be creative in your life. You can have many different journals or you can buy a journal with several sections to it.

You want to select a journal or journals that quicken your heart when you see it. Beautiful. Colorful. Quirky. Retro. Select a journal that triggers a response in your heart when you see it and expand on that feeling with the journaling process.

Your journal is about creative self-expression. It is a way to speak your truth. This is the season of your life when speaking your truth is critical. When you schedule a time every day to journal and you follow through with it, you are creating space for you in your life. Creating that space communicates to yourself that you see yourself as a sacred being.

Here is what you want to keep tabs on with your journal:

~You are a valuable person. Journal about the tangible and intangible things that are valuable about you, within you and to you.    
~When you discover quirky little things about yourself that you like, write that down. Get in the habit of saying, “I like that about myself.”
~Make a list of things you like.
~Make a list of colors and write down how they make you feel. Play with colors. Write down words you associate with colors. Become aware of colors in your life.
~Delve into your childhood in a positive way and remember the things that brought you joy. Remember all the things you did that got you in trouble and write them down and chuckle over them all over again. Reconnect with your childhood.
~Feel free to cut out pictures from magazines and paste them in your journal or doodle or draw in your journal. It is not just for written words.
~Make a list of things you want and be sure to add everything outrageous that you can think of. List things and experiences that you want. Write down all your hopes and dreams.
~Journal to get the junk out of your head and your emotions. Brain dump and clear out what is going on in you behind the scenes.
~Have a self-dialog journal. Start out with person A, which is you. Write something down and let person B answer Person A. If you can, use your right hand for Person A and your left hand for Person B or vice versa. This way, you become more aware about your internal dialog.
~Keep a gratitude journal. I prefer to call it an awareness journal. Each day, list five to ten things you are grateful for. As you write down your list, enter into that space of awareness of what is going on with you and in the world around you. Look for things you do not normally look for. Then experience the emotion of gratitude for all of it. Wallow in it. Enjoy it.

Develop the habit of journaling and you will reap many rewards for it. As you are consistent with journaling, you will find many new things about yourself that you did not know existed. You are an explorer of yourself. Journaling is a way to record your exploration.

If you are lucky, you may be aware of what is going on as you have a midlife crisis. This is a time to reinvent your life. It is time to process your past and look at each of the triggering events.  If you do not process the grief from any of these events, you end up not being able to move forward in your life fully

Grief comes up from any of the following events:

~ End of a marriage or a long term relationship.
~ Layoff from a job.
~ Loss of your home to foreclosure.
~ Bankruptcy.
~ Diagnosis of an illness such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure or heart problems.
~ Empty nest syndrome.
~ Failure of a business.
~ Caring for aging parents.
~ Death of one or both of your parents.
~ Death of friends or siblings prematurely.
~ Loss of a pet.
~ For women, the onset of peri-menopause or menopause.
~ Any major life change.
~ Realization that you may never have children.
~ Any sort of major life change.

There is a place to grieve for the loss of what you once had no matter how bad it was. It is important to process the grief otherwise it gets stuck in your body and in your emotions and you find yourself reacting in ways that may seem strange. No matter what the triggering incident it, it served a legitimate purpose in your life. Even if you had an abusive parent, they were still your parent and their loss from your life can be devastating.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote a book called, “On Death and Dying” in 1969 in which she details the five stages of grief.

~Denial – “I feel fine.”
~Anger – “Why me? It’s not fair!”
~Bargaining – “Just let me live to see my children graduate.”
~Depression – ”I am so sad, why bother?”
~Acceptance  – “It’s going to be okay. All is well!”

A person processing grief does not go through each of these stages in any particular order and usually, processing these emotions feels like a roller coaster ride.

It is important to acknowledge that you are experiencing grief. It is important to get support in the way that is meaningful to you. And please make sure you get to the place of acceptance where you know you are fine and that you have something to look forward to.

If you do not observe the grief process then you stand the chance of creating something new out of your weakness and not from a place of strength. Getting to the place of acceptance allows you to create from a wonderful place of fully processing grief and so your reinvention comes from a powerful platform.

Now that you know the stages of grief, the most important thing to know about grief is this: “Go ahead and experience grief when necessary.” Please know when you are grieving and give yourself the space, time and energy to grieve.

Whatever you feed your brain is what your brain feeds your body and what turns out to be your experience. Therefore, what you feed your brain is important. Out of those 60,000 thoughts, you cannot control all of them but if you get into the habit of questioning your thoughts and focusing on positive things, then you will be able to gain a more positive perspective.

It is really important that you recognize that you have the power to choose which thoughts you want to have.  You can train your thoughts to be more supportive of your life.

Learn to ask your brain questions that stimulate it in a positive way.   And take the time to listen for the answers. We all know how to ask questions but are you asking the right questions? You must understand how your mind works.

When you ask a question, the way you ask the question pre-supposes a response. For instance, if you ask yourself, “Why am I so stupid?” Well, your answer is going to presuppose stupidity. The natural response to “Why am I so stupid?” is “Because…..” Not, “Well, no, I am not really stupid.”

So, it is important to feed your brain the right questions. Now, you may want to ask yourself open ended questions like, “What do I want to do?” But chances are you may not get a response. It is important to ask yourself questions that presuppose what you want.

For instance, the question, “What can I do now that will make me happy?”  will lead you to a definite response that will evoke your happiness.
In addition, take the time to think and study to know what your values and your goals are and craft questions around that. This is a powerful way to reaffirm your strengths.

Below are some examples of questions that you can ask yourself. However before you ask yourself these questions, prepare yourself for the questions. When you ask yourself a question, listen to your emotions to experience how the question feels. Check in with your body to see if your are having a negative reaction to the questions.

~What do I want?
~What are the emotions I am seeking behind what I want?
~What makes me happy?
~How can I serve others in a fulfilling way?
~What do I see myself doing in the next five years?
~If success was guaranteed, what would I do?
~What have I always wanted to do that I have not done?
~What would I want said at my funeral?
~How can I contribute more effectively to my community?

Feel the power behind these questions.  Ask yourself these questions and listen for the answers and then record the answers.  Be sure that you take the time to listen to the answers and enjoy that special space of hearing yourself. You are the only one that can provide yourself with these answers so enjoy listening for the answers.

When the answers come, and they will, celebrate the fact that you are taking the time to ask yourself these types of questions and that you are moving into a phase of your life where you are reinventing yourself and your are making yourself your number one priority.

Enjoy your discovery process!

Your Chakra system refers to a system of energy flow in your body.  Your body is intuitive and it speaks to you. You experience many feelings in your body but you may not be aware of them. The Chakra system is an Ancient Sanskrit tradition that addresses the flow of energy in the body. Each of the seven chakras speak to where emotions can lodge in your body energetically. As you understand the seven chakras, you will understand the wonderful hidden messages that your body is communicating to you.

The Root Chakra speaks to your sense of belonging. It’s business values are that your business is part of a community. Your business belongs and has the right to be in the marketplace. This means that you have the right to a viable marketplace presence. This is so important to reconnect with on those days that you feel like a fish out of water or that your business does not fit into the marketplace.

Your Sacral Chakra speaks to your sense of pleasure. The business value is that you have the right to profit, make money and enjoy profits. The creativity of your business is a significant contribution to the community and you have the right to be creative and enjoy it. Just remember that you are entitled to show up in the marketplace, offer value and receive value in the form of profits. It is your entitlement.

Your Solar Plexus Chakra speaks to your sense of personal power. The corresponding business value is that your business has a right to be a powerful contributor to the community. You have a right to be powerful and to make a difference and impact others positively.

Your Heart Chakra speaks to love and protecting your heart. Now, this message is under developed for most business. It really is not an option to not love yourself. You must love yourself and love others. This means that you must love your product or service and your customers likewise. Love is the highest vibration and it belongs in the marketplace.

Your Throat Chakra speaks to communication and speaking your truth. I love explaining this to small business owners as this speaks to your capacity to market your business and communicate your value to others. So those wonderful small business owners that do not like marketing, your body will respond in a negative way as marketing and selling yourself is part of your right and your throat loves this process! Learn to get very comfortable with communicating your value and the value of your customers.

Your Third eye Chakra speaks to your intuition and capacity to perceive others. In business, this speaks to how you perceive your customers. Are you connecting with them? Be intuitive, in tune and in sync with your customers and your third eye serves you in this area.

Your Crown Chakra resides above your head. With the heart Chakra, we discussed love in the marketplace. That love translates into Spiritual service with the Crown Chakra. As you perceive your business as an instrument of service, you will find innovative and creative ways to deliver your goods or service and you will find a path that takes your business experience outside of you as Spiritual service and yet retains its financial profitability.

Tap into these seven values and reconnect with them for your business often and watch your business thrive and prosper.