Reinventing Yourself on a Shoestring

I dyed my hair purple last week. I’m turning 57 this week. I’m half done writing my second book. I spent 15 years as a single mother until the kids grew up. I used to gut salmon for a living. I was also a bank teller. I was homeless once. I went back to college in my 30s and majored in history, while working a full-time job and raising two very young children on my own. I used to be shy. That one raises a few eyebrows.

What do these seemingly random facts about myself have in common and why am I telling you this? Before there was a term for it, I was an expert in reinvention. When I didn’t like myself, or the circumstances of my life, I reinvented myself. I don’t want to sound glib. Sometimes, it was a long, hard slog getting where I wanted to go, and most of the time I didn’t know what I was doing. I know, I know, that’s hardly a way to sell anyone on my level of expertise, but bear with me.

Like just about anything in life, if you do something often enough you get good at it. If you put the time and work into creating new habits, you’ll probably keep them. Practice makes perfect. Well, okay, not so much that last one. Nothing and no one is perfect. The point is in the practice.

I want to give you a peek inside my upcoming book, where you’ll learn not only how to practice, but how to work at getting what you want. Notice that I don’t promise that you will get what you want and everything will work out perfectly if you read my book, do the planning, and fill out the worksheets. I’m not interested in lying to my readers. You will learn how to create your own reinvention plan, the steps you’ll need to take, and you will discover where to find the resources you might lack right now.

I want to show you how to reinvent yourself when you don’t have much to begin with. This is what I know. I am not an influencer. My Instagram selfies will never, ever go viral. I don’t own a big house or designer purses. I’ve been driving the same car for 20 years. I have to work hard to make a living. I’m real. Just like you.

I will be self-publishing my book, “Reinventing Yourself on a Shoestring”, in late summer but I’m not stopping there. Anyone who purchases the book can sign up for a discounted monthly subscription to a newsletter and website that will offer helpful supplemental materials to the book, including worksheets, planner pages, lists of resources, interviews, podcasts, and a Q&A section, among other things.

Sample Chapters

Chapter 2: What Do You Want?

Who is it you are meant to be, and why? What is it you want to change? List making is important in this chapter.

Chapter 4: Design Your Life

Goal setting. SMART goals. Creating a road map. Identifying what you have, what you don’t have, and ways to get what you need.

Chapter 5: Test and Trust

Learn, experiment, and leave your comfort zone. It’s okay if you discover you set out on the wrong path and need to start over at chapter 4 again. Learn how to apply a SWOT Analysis to your reinvention. Businesses use this to assess new programs and ventures, but it’s also useful to individuals.

Chapter 6: Utilizing Free Resources

There’s an app for that!

• Productivity
• Time management
• Finances
• Personal development
• Fitness
• Courses
• Languages

Whatever your reinvention journey, there are free or low-cost resources to help

Chapter 8: When You Hit a Wall

Self-help advice is supposed to be positive and motivate you, but the truth is that you’re probably going to hit a wall at some point. A roadblock will appear on your journey. You’ll get stressed out or filled with self-doubt. It’s okay. It’s normal. We all go through it. Chapter topics:

• Feeling like you’re on a high wire without a net
• Coping mechanisms
• Self-motivation
• Give yourself a break
• Reward yourself
• Be like Rocky

Chapter 10: Swimming in the Deep End

You’ve done it. You did the planning, put in the work, and took the plunge. It’s only scary until it’s normal. Remember that you did all the work it took to become a strong swimmer, so be confident in your abilities.

Finally, the most important thing to remember about this journey is that whatever you have become, whatever you are doing now, you don’t have to do forever unless you really want to. You can always set out on another journey.

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The last paragraph of my book is the most important. I initially set out to write a new book when the pandemic took hold of the globe. That goal evolved and expanded as new realities settled in to our lives in unsettling ways. I lost my accounting job and reinvented myself as a full-time writer. I’m going to take new risks. I’m learning to create podcasts to accompany all of my ventures and I’m creating learning courses so that my book isn’t a “one and done” kind of deal. The topic of reinvention is easily adaptable to recurring revenue streams from multiple sources.

I’ve learned and overcome a lot, and I am living my reinvented life. I want to share the journey and teach others because giving and receiving help, and connecting with people on many levels, are possibly the most important things we will ever do in life. I cover that in Chapter 7.