There’s only one constant in life: change.
And being able to reinvent yourself is an essential skill if you want to create a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
But change scares us.
Do you wonder how to get outside your comfort zone and take a leap of faith despite fear of the unknown?
I got you.
In this article, I’ll share what I’ve learned after reinventing myself several times. More importantly, you’ll learn how to reinvent yourself at any age in 4 powerful steps with the worksheet.
Let’s dive in!
Downloadable worksheet
You must take action if you want to reinvent yourself successfully. So fill out your email below to gain access to the Resource Library of Inside Out Mastery and download the Reinvent Yourself Worksheet.
What does it mean to reinvent yourself?
Reinventing yourself means making significant changes in your life, either by rediscovering or reshaping your identity (think about values and beliefs) or changing external factors, like your career and relationships.
Simpler said than done, of course.
Reinventing yourself requires a willingness to become brutally honest with yourself, step outside your comfort zone, and try something new.
Sometimes, that requires taking two steps back first.
And no one wants to take a step back.
Yet, doing so prepares you to take a massive leap forward. And that’s where most growth and success stem from.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Why self-reinvention is important (and inevitable)
Gone are the days when you hunt and gather all day, get a full belly, and have a restful night of sleep.
Modern life is here.
And it’s changing – fast.
For example, did you know that the fastest piece of technology reaching 100 million users is ChatGPT?
And they did it in 5 DAYS!
But the rapid development of technology isn’t the only reason why reinventing yourself is so important.
After all, human life is already quite dynamic.
Need evidence? Have you recently been:
- Lacking a sense of direction
- Feeling stuck in your career
- Feeling behind your peers
- Experiencing a breakup
- Unable to move towards your goals
- Experiencing traumatic events
- Feeling like something is off
All the above require some form of self-reinvention.
How to reinvent yourself in life?
The skill set to reinvent yourself will benefit you forever. Every time you feel off, take a step back and do the exercises below.
You see, we often know when something needs to change.
It just takes a bit of time to figure out what.
That’s why gaining clarity is an essential first step. It allows you to identify the gaps between your current and ideal state. And that enables you to bridge the gap.
It’s time to reinvent oneself.
Step 1: Discovering your unique needs
Everyone is different and has unique personal needs. But chances are high that you never defined what your unique needs are.
You see, we often adopt the needs of others.
Becoming rich is a good example. Nothing wrong if that’s your goal. It once was my goal. But it never inspired me to take action. And that’s a problem.
Instead, I learned that doing meaningful work was important to me. And also the freedom to work from anywhere and flexibility in my working hours, so I can go to the gym during the day.
Those unique needs make me tick. More than just money.
What are your personal needs?
Can you answer the following questions:
- What are your superpowers?
- What are your core values?
- What’s your calling?
- What are your goals and dreams?
- And who do you want to become?
If you can provide clear answers, then you likely know what to change. In that case, go to step 2 and learn how to develop self-confidence to overcome your fears.
For the rest, let’s continue.
Step 1.1: Your superpowers
Discovering and leveraging your superpowers leads to more success, fulfillment, and joy. Yet, most people lack clarity or vaguely know what they’re good at.
Can you tell me your top 3 superpowers right now?
If you believe that you’ve none, let me tell you something. Everyone has several superpowers, including you.
And you’re about to uncover your top three.
Answer the following questions and write your potential strengths down on the brainstorming section of the worksheet.
- What’s something you’re good at that you also love doing?
- Reflect on your passions and write them down.
- What do people compliment you for at work?
- Copy the most relevant personal strength examples.
- Take the free HIGH5 strengths test and write down your top 5.
- Alternatively, take another free or paid strengths test.
- If you prefer self-assessments, try the SWOT analysis.
Once you finish this brainstorming, make a selection of your top 5 strengths based on what stands out the most to you.
Then, short-list and write down your top 3 on the worksheet.
Learn more: how to find your strengths
Step 1.2: Your values
Personal values serve as your inner compass for making important life decisions and guiding everyday actions.
Are you clear about what your values are?
Even if you do, it’s good to review them occasionally. Write the answers for the following on the brainstorm section of your worksheet:
- Start with a mind map to list anything that’s important to you. For example, think about honesty, integrity, and courage.
- Write down the qualities of the people you admire.
- Gather more ideas from the list of values.
Once again, make a top 10 or a top 5. Then shortlist and write down your top 3 on your worksheet.
Step 1.3: Personal goals and dreams
Do you often dare to dream and wonder about the possibilities for your life? Do you have ambitious goals and desires?
If not, it’s time to generate some.
You see, YOLO (You Only Live Once).
Corny – I know. But it’s true. You’ve only got one life, and you better make the best of it because no one else does it for you.
If you struggle to set personal goals, here’s some inspiration:
- If you had all the money in the world, what would you be doing?
- Where would you like to move to if your country ceases to exist?
- If you had all the power in the world, what would you do with it?
Having wild personal dreams is amazing and provides something you can be excited about. Even if you doubt that you’ll make it happen, the pursuit itself is where most joy comes from.
List your three most important goals on the worksheet. If you only have one that stands out, turn that into a 10-year, 3-year and yearly goal.
Learn more: how to set goals
Step 1.4: Your purpose
Besides striving towards personal goals, it’s important to make a contribution larger than yourself for a complete and fulfilling life.
You’ve likely heard something like this before before:
Pursue your purpose to live a meaningful life.
And although it sounds cliche, it’s very true.
Viktor Frankl used it to survive the atrocities of the Holocaust. Simon Sinek explains that starting with why is essential for both individuals and businesses. And the good old Nietsche said this:
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
Your purpose gives you a reason to fight and persist through hardships and challenges. It’s one of the best ways to stay motivated.
But what fires you up?
Here are some inspiring questions to begin brainstorming:
- What impact do you want to make in the world?
- If you had one wish, what problem would you make disappear?
- What do you feel passionate about that could benefit others?
Keep in mind that your purpose involves an element of contribution, whether that means towards your family or the entire world.
Write down a purpose statement on your worksheet.
Learn more: how to find your purpose
Step 1.5: Your vision statement
There’s only one final piece of the puzzle to cover now.
And that’s who you want to become.
What do you want to be remembered for outside your achievements?
Think about the following questions:
- What do you want people to say about you when you’re gone?
- Where would you like to be in 5 years – and what kind of person do you need to become to achieve that?
- Look at your role models again. What speaks out most to you?
Craft a vision statement for who you would like to become and write it down on your worksheet.
Learn more: write a personal vision statement
Step 2: Mapping your time matrix
Everyone has the same amount of time in their day. But those who feel fulfilled spend more time in areas that are most important to them.
In other words, master your time to create your best life.
The first step is clarity.
How are you currently spending your time?
Let’s see what that looks like.
You get 100 points for the next exercise. Divide these points across the following categories based on how you currently spend your time:
- Career / Business includes any time you spend related to your job, business, side hustle projects, and travel time.
- Health includes exercise, cooking meals, and essential sleep.
- Relationships include time with your partner, friends, family, meeting new people, and dating.
- Personal time includes reading, meditation, self-care, and anything else you do to rejuvenate yourself.
- Other activities include anything you spend a lot of time on, like volunteering or traveling. Also include downtime here, like time spent scrolling endlessly through social media.
Fill out the “your current time matrix” section in the worksheet. All categories together should add to 100.
Additional information
You may struggle to identify when something fits in the personal time or other activities bucket. For example, you might play games to rejuvenate yourself. The same could go for social media apps.
The important part is to identify whether it really helps you rejuvenate. For example, I enjoy playing video games for an hour. But I often find myself playing the entire afternoon, feeling more depleted afterwards.
Make these mental notes for yourself.
The main objective is understanding how much time you spend in each category and how you feel about it, which helps for the next step.
Creating your ideal time matrix
One of the reasons we often feel unfulfilled in our lives is that we rarely decide what it means to feel fulfilled.
That’s exactly what you’re about to do now.
Based on the answers from your personal needs (step 1), you can now create a time matrix that matches your needs.
For example, if you want to earn a living doing what you love, but the only time you spend in the career / business section is your actual job, then you could allocate a couple more points there.
Where do you take the points from?
Most people can reduce the time they spend:
- Scrolling through social media.
- Playing video games.
- Watching tv.
None of these activities is necessarily bad. The problem occurs when you use it to procrastinate rather than restore energy.
Sounds familiar?
Most people can win time in these areas.
The second part is that reinventing yourself requires sacrifice. Everyone has the same amount of time each day. But how you spend your time determines your outcomes.
Professional athletes are a great example of that. They reach exceptional levels through hard work and many sacrifices.
That’s part of their deal.
And if you want to become exceptional at anything in your life, you may have to sacrifice time in some categories for the foreseeable future.
That’s a decision you’ve got to make.
Go back to the worksheet and fill out the second part of the time matrix.
How should you spend your time to achieve your goals whilst aligning it with your highest values?
Step 3: Identify the gaps
What needs to change?
That’s the question you can answer after the first two steps. While everyone is different, consider the following gaps:
- Do you spend your time based on what’s more important to you?
- Do you work mostly from your strengths (in your career)?
- Do most of your activities align with your values?
- Are you fulfilling your purpose, whether through your career, business, or activities outside your profession?
- Are you moving towards the person you want to become?
Here’s more inspiration to reinvent yourself if you struggle to identify those gaps:
- Are your needs met in your career or business?
- Are you thinking about a different career? If so, what and why?
- Do you want to spice things up and learn new skills?
- Do you often feel depleted or experience high energy levels?
- Are you moving enough?
- Do you get enough sunlight?
- Are you happy about the time you spend in your relationship?
- Do you spend time with the right people, or do you often feel depleted after spending time with them?
Write down all the things you would like to change, no matter how large or small. What gaps exist between your current and ideal life?
Step 4: Bridging the gap
Have a look at your list of gaps.
Which point stands out?
In my teenage years, I lacked confidence and direction in my life. Although I had no idea what to do, I wanted to take back control. And my starting point was going to the gym to develop some muscles.
What could be your starting point?
The best way to make change happen is to find out what point you want to prioritize first. Here are some ideas:
- What feels most pressing to you? When I felt stuck and lacked confidence, I figured that I needed a better physique. And the gym became my starting point for reinventing myself.
- No idea where to start? What’s the smallest change that you could make? Achieving a quick win boosts confidence and momentum.
- Do you want to make a BIG change? Awesome! Your next step is to break your goal up into smaller chunks. Bitesizeable objectives feel achievable and increase the likelihood of taking action.
Let’s make this more concrete with an example.
Changing careers is a common way to reinvent yourself. And one that most people struggle with for good reason: it’s scary.
Here are some ideas to make it happen:
- Start developing high-income skills at home. The first reason is that it allows you to experience a new field without making the leap into it. Second, learning new skills shows great initiative and gives you one up on the competition if you decide to give the career a shot.
- Find people through LinkedIn who already occupy the career you want. Perhaps you can ask them some questions about their experience. Most people are happy to answer a few.
- Perhaps you can shadow someone for a day.
- Go to a career expo to learn more.
- Attend open days.
- Update your resume.
- Apply for jobs.
Of course, you need the courage to make the eventual leap of faith. That’s unavoidable when it comes to reinventing yourself through big changes like changing your career, starting a business, moving to another city, traveling alone, or any similar goal.
Break up the actions into tiny sizes – and start taking action.
But also remember that when you get to the edge, fear will kick in. You’ll never feel ready to take the leap. And sometimes, you have to trust yourself, your process, and the Universe.
Learn more: How to be more confident?
My personal story
To give you a concrete example of how to reinvent yourself, I want to share a part of my story.
While I enjoyed various full-time jobs, I was always intrigued by the idea of working for myself and enjoying the freedom to work from anywhere.
So I reinvented myself.
Instead of staying in finance and earning a decent salary, I decided to get a marketing internship at an agency. Why? Because I prioritized learning this valuable skill set over short-term money.
The reason was simple.
Learning new skills aligns with one of my highest values: continuous self-improvement. The second benefit is that I could use these skills for a freelancing career or potential business in the future.
It also proved a valuable skill set for Inside Out Mastery.
This website started from a place of passion and purpose. I decided to play fewer video games and start blogging instead. So I went to bed and woke up an hour earlier to write before going to my job.
And I’m very happy about the decisions I made. Today, I work as a freelancer and feel very fulfilled writing for my blog.
But I’m also still figuring life out.
I don’t have all the answers yet.
And as I go through the stages of life, so will I continue to use this blog post to reinvent myself. Because gaining clarity often is an incredibly valuable exercise for personal success and fulfillment.
What’s next?
Reinventing yourself is an essential skill for maintaining a healthy work-life balance and living a fulfilling life.
Throughout this article, you’ve clarified what’s important to you and how you spend your time. Doing so hopefully revealed some gaps.
Gaining clarity is the first essential step.
But the most important step is taking action.
Back when I struggled with myself, I started going to the gym. The reason was to develop confidence. But although I didn’t gain much confidence, it did give me something better: curiosity.
Working out ignited my personal development journey.
The reason why I’m telling you this story?
Taking action provides clarity. Even if you did all the exercises in this article but struggle to identify the next step, start somewhere. Learn a new skill, try out some hobbies, or start an exercise routine.
Do that for a couple of weeks or months.
And then repeat the lessons from this article to reinvent yourself. You’ll be surprised by how much you learn from just taking action.
Good luck!
Keep reinventing yourself
You never reinvent yourself simply once. Instead, you must keep reinventing yourself as you go through the different stages of life.
To do so successfully, you must keep gaining clarity and sharpen your tools to create your best life.
Do you want more strategies to create your most exciting life? Then make sure to sign up below and get access to some of my best stuff!
