Reinventing yourself vs rediscovering yourself.

Every so often we find ourselves at a time in our life when we feel a change of self or direction is required or desired. You contemplate your current situation and the way you feel about yourself at these pivotal or significant time's.

There will be moments, if you have not experienced them already, when you feel you are no longer the person you once were. Maybe you are no longer happy being the person you have become, or you wish to strive to take active steps to emerge as the person you really want to be.

When these thoughts and feelings manifest themselves, many questions arise. like who am I? And where is life taking me? After some thought and consideration, you will inevitably have some choices and decisions to grapple with.

How you deal with this new change in direction usually falls either on the side of reinvention and a new forward thinking projected identity. Or looking inwardly at your core values and rediscovering yourself (at least in some respects) from the you of the the past.

In today's society we often come across many forms of reinvention and rediscovery, depending on the need of the brand, company or product and what image they want to portray. Some thing that has fallen into favour one day could quite as easily be dismissed the next.

However when we are looking at reinvention and rediscovery in regards to an individual, we can not afford to be as fickle, after all it is dictating the path of a personal journey, not an idea for the latest advertising campaign or fashion trend.

To decide if what you are seeking is to rediscover or reinvent, you first have to consider quite carefully the options that are presented before you and ultimately what you hope to eventually achieve.

Reinvention is something that has become very popular among many in the music industry, in terms of not only there music but also in terms of there image. The look, attitude and sound that was once favoured, soon becomes tired and needs revamping in order to continue to be successful. This works well when trying to gain a new audience or to reflect their coming of age or their growing experience. 

Similarly it is something the fashion industry do regularly in regard to clothes, taking a look that was once popular a decade or many decades before and transforming it, by using new prints, fabrics, cuts or lengths. Bringing it up to date, so to speak.

Companies reinvent themselves frequently by changing there image to appeal to a new customer base. Or representing themselves as a healthier and more etical brand, as this is what consumers are now looking for from their purchases.

Reinvention is about forward thinking, change, new ideas and doing something different. It will be for you if you are looking for a whole new way of life, mindset and you feel like you are in need of a fresh start. If you like to keep things moving and try new things this would be for you.

If you have done what you have always done, you will get what you have always got, if things are not working well for you, try to reinvent your life in a way that does work.

The beauty of reinvention is that it is something you can experiment with and do over again, as many times as you like. Each time discovering something you never knew existed about yourself or the wider world.

After trying many incarnations of yourself however, chances are you may decide you have found out everything you need to know about reinvention or you've tried reinvention and it didn't work for you. Maybe you very quickly came to the conclusion that it's not for you, just by reading this. Maybe rediscovery is the way to go.

Sometimes in life we become lost, we become so removed from the people we once were, that we start to question, who we really are and what we really stand for.

This happens a lot in society, we progress so far and a such a speed that often it is too late to notice that you have made a mistake until it's happened. And because either many other people have made that mistake along with you or the problem has persisted for such a significant amount of time, it makes it difficult to see a way out by progressing any further, therefore the only way is to look back at what has worked before.

Our cooking and eating habits have reverted back to the traditional, family eating together around the table and making a meal from scratch. Because microwave meals in front of the telly, were demonstrating detrimental effects, which of course in high insight, it would.

Similarly not wasting food or resources and making do and mending, is by far more preferable then throwing away things that needn't be. Saving money and valuing things in your possession, makes for a better world, then everything being regarded as disposable. It was just a shame that it took a recession for us to realize that.

Rediscovery is about being true to yourself, it's about finding out what makes you, you. It's thinking about your core values and what is important to you, looking back at things that were already good and maybe even remembering, vital aspects about what makes you happy, that may have been forgotten.

Truth is we can learn a lot from the past and all the important lessons it has to teach us. Yet we still, to greater or lesser degrees, cover up who we really are, with what we think or feel we should be. Which unfortunately is of little help to anyone.

Can you achieve the best of both worlds? Yes, the world both externally and internally is ever changing, we all reflect and adapt to that, what works for you is something you have to discover for yourself, no one can tell you how you should live your life or what is going to make you happy. You may have to experience many different things in life and ask a great many questions, before you can make an informed decision. You will probably fail before you find success, but that's OK too. Nobody has all the answers or gets it right first time.

Rediscovery verses reinvention, it's generally not really one or the other but a combination of both, depending on your desired goal.