I recently watched a Biography program featuring Molly Ringwald of 1980s comedy/drama fame including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and others. To my surprise, I found out that Molly is now an accomplished jazz singer. She said something that really struck me about her life. To paraphrase, she said something about the fact that she hasn’t reinvented herself into a jazz singer, she has just always evolved as a person. In fact, she used to sing with her father’s jazz group as a young girl, and returning to jazz singing has simply been a part of her evolving as a human being.

Now I don’t want to get hung up on the words “reinvention” and “evolution.” The fact is that most adults, myself included, have reinvented themselves at least once in their adult lives. However when Molly said that she saw her life as more of an evolution of herself, it seemed intentional, purposeful and natural. It spoke to me as a person who helps others to step into a greater expression of themselves, most times including “reinvention” or “evolution” on their part.

After many years of working with people in this way, I offer a few observations here to consider if you are also looking at the next evolution of yourself:

This is a good thing.

Many times people beat themselves up for wanting to or needing to evolve, when in fact, it’s a very natural thing. I mean, can you imagine being the exact same person you were as a teenager? I’ll speak for myself here: Yikes!

A client, we’ll call her Jane, came to me after having built very successful business. She was feeling frustrated because she didn’t want her business as it was anymore. She was bored and was feeling guilty about it. As we coached, she started to understand that evolving and reinventing herself was a really good thing because she got to serve people in a new way that actually invigorated her again. It didn’t mean that she didn’t like or appreciate her past. In fairly short order she decided to “hug” her past, appreciate what lead her to today and then with gratitude and compassion, start purposefully walking toward her future. She has since gone on to build credibility as a motivational speaker and mentor.

To do something like this for yourself, you will want to…

Create a vision.

It may seem obvious, but you need to know where you are going. If you are itching for something new, start to spell it out in as much detail as you can. Perhaps you can use your five senses and write about you will see, hear, taste, smell and touch when you have fully realized your new vision. For example, Molly Ringwald could have said that she hears jazz music every day, feels the music from within her and feels connected with her father.

Once you have this vision, review it often because…

It can be a bumpy ride.

Change may not comfortable, even if it’s a positive change. Even so, change should be intentional and purposeful. I propose that you set the bar high and then rise up to meet it. Just acknowledge that there will be challenges and try to plan for obvious bumps in the road so you can deal with them and move on.

To manage these changes, you will want to…

Tell others your plan.

Share your vision with others and ask them to hold you accountable. Ask them for any specific help you need emotionally, physically, spiritually or otherwise. You will need people around you who will help you keep moving and also to celebrate with as you have successes.

If you want help to define your next moves, I’m happy to help. I’ve set aside time to talk with the first 10 people who contact me this week who know they want to experience something like this in their own lives. Contact me at Info@RichLifeMarketing.com to set up a time for a complimentary 30 minute call with me today.

© 2013 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing