The messy, beautiful art of reinvention
It’s the last Friday of winter – Spring kicks off officially on Sunday! It’s been a long and very wet Cape Town winter. We are certainly looking forward to seeing the sun some more.
This past weekend I was reminded about something I heard my dad say a couple of times growing up: “If you don’t drive a BMW by the time you turn 25 you never will.” For a time I accepted this as truth. I mean, if your dad says it, it has to be true right?
This mindset has a much wider impact than the car you end up driving. To me, it signals an underlying understanding or acceptance that once our lives set off on a specific course, there is very little you can do about changing the direction. Like a massive ship with momentum, you cannot just make adjustments at the drop of a hat. Or can you?
What got me thinking about this topic (among other things) was coming across this video. I won’t rehash the message – it’s less than 6-minutes long. Well worth the watch!
What Rick talks about (and I admire him greatly for what he’s been able to accomplish) is the underrated ability to reinvent oneself. Looking at all of the examples he mentions and the zigzag course his life has followed, you realize that the course you are on at 25 is probably not much of a predictor of where you will be at age 62. Life, to state the glaringly obvious, is unpredictable. Circumstances change, things don’t work out, we lose jobs, relationships end, industries shift, people pass away, passions change or new ones emerge, and we come to fresh realizations. This will happen to all of us. What will likely not happen to all of us, is that we won’t reinvent ourselves as Rick did. Not because we can’t, but because it takes a LOT of learning. The alternative is sticking to your guns and drifting off into irrelevance and obscurity. Not an exciting thought.
Notice that he never went away from his core passion, which is music. Rather, he found different angles and opportunities to live out his passion. Where the opportunity did not exist, he created it by leveraging what he was already competent at, being passionate and humble enough to ask great questions.
It’s a beautiful example of the growth mindset in practice: approaching life as a continuous work in progress. Learning as much as you can along the way, sometimes having to take two steps back to take five steps forward, while knowing all the while that you never truly “arrive”. Whether you are 24, 40, 56 or 71, your life is not over yet. If you are willing to take on the learnings and are courageous enough to make the shifts, there is no limit to the cool things you can yet achieve. Just like Rick.
The question you need to consider this weekend: Where do I need to change direction?
Empty shelves
It’s the last Friday of winter – Spring kicks off officially on Sunday! It’s been a long and very wet Cape Town winter. We are certainly looking forward to seeing the sun some more.
This past weekend I was reminded about something I heard my dad say a couple of times growing up: “If you don’t drive a BMW by the time you turn 25 you never will.” For a time I accepted this as truth. I mean, if your dad says it, it has to be true right?
This mindset has a much wider impact than the car you end up driving. To me, it signals an underlying understanding or acceptance that once our lives set off on a specific course, there is very little you can do about changing the direction. Like a massive ship with momentum, you cannot just make adjustments at the drop of a hat. Or can you?
What got me thinking about this topic (among other things) was coming across this video. I won’t rehash the message – it’s less than 6-minutes long. Well worth the watch!
What Rick talks about (and I admire him greatly for what he’s been able to accomplish) is the underrated ability to reinvent oneself. Looking at all of the examples he mentions and the zigzag course his life has followed, you realize that the course you are on at 25 is probably not much of a predictor of where you will be at age 62. Life, to state the glaringly obvious, is unpredictable. Circumstances change, things don’t work out, we lose jobs, relationships end, industries shift, people pass away, passions change or new ones emerge, and we come to fresh realizations. This will happen to all of us. What will likely not happen to all of us, is that we won’t reinvent ourselves as Rick did. Not because we can’t, but because it takes a LOT of learning. The alternative is sticking to your guns and drifting off into irrelevance and obscurity. Not an exciting thought.
Notice that he never went away from his core passion, which is music. Rather, he found different angles and opportunities to live out his passion. Where the opportunity did not exist, he created it by leveraging what he was already competent at, being passionate and humble enough to ask great questions.
It’s a beautiful example of the growth mindset in practice: approaching life as a continuous work in progress. Learning as much as you can along the way, sometimes having to take two steps back to take five steps forward, while knowing all the while that you never truly “arrive”. Whether you are 24, 40, 56 or 71, your life is not over yet. If you are willing to take on the learnings and are courageous enough to make the shifts, there is no limit to the cool things you can yet achieve. Just like Rick.
The question you need to consider this weekend: Where do I need to change direction?
If you are having a difficult time with change we would love to help, get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.
