Child’s Play
We hear it all the time: "Reinvent yourself!"
There's a lot of pressure in that statement. It's a call to figure out how to become someone you've never been. To invent means to create something that wasn't there before. You've always been there. To reinvent insinuates you aren't enough the way God made you.
As we journey through our many seasons of life, we have beautiful opportunities to pivot and discover. Where I am today versus where I was in my first job out of college are polar opposites. Each season of my life I've been discovering who I am. And sometimes it's been a struggle, and sometimes I feel like I've finally hit the right track.
During this new season, there are so many changes happening within my body and mind. It's unsettling, to say the least. There is no more predictability, I don't know my body as well as I used to, I can't trust my emotions and reactions, and all these new issues make it too easy to feel entitled to give up, withdraw, and indulge in self-pity.
First, I encourage you to take some time to feel sorry for yourself, spend time under your favorite blanket and just disconnect. It is NECESSARY. But don't unpack there. Visit that space a couple times a week, honor the things you're going through and return to the land of the living.
Most importantly, I encourage to get yourself unstuck. If you feel like you're desperate to figure out a new purpose or a new path, do it. But don't try to make something out of nothing. Rather than reinvent yourself, discover yourself. Who are you at your core? When you were a child, what did you love to do? If you could rest in your God-given talents, what would you be doing today?
Discover the you that's been laying dormant due to all the demands. You can make a career out of the gifts that have been within you all along. Always loved to decorate or rearrange the furniture as a child? Offer services to help others make the best out of the spaces within their homes. Obsessed with helping, being the one who makes things happen, and details are your thing? Become a virtual assistant. You've always known your knack for numbers, budgeting, and organization but you felt destined for the family business? Start a bookkeeping service.
The one thing I know from being in this season of life is that I must live in my talents, cultivate my creativity, and be true to who God made me to be. Admittedly, it's taken me a long time to figure it all out, but I feel like I've arrived at my willingness to honor my innate talents and make a life from them.
Today, take a little time and jot down all the things you loved to do as a child, the play you engaged in and the activities you did when left to your own accord will speak volumes to you.
