The Biggest Reason You Can’t Re-invent Yourself (and it’s not what you think)

The economic downturn may have meant you got laid off, or your company went under, or your organization had to trim down. You’ve heard the common wisdom by now: re-invent yourself!

Just get a new job, start a business, train in a new career, come up with a new product or service, find a different kind of customer, create a new business model and so on.

Fear of death

The reality of re-inventing yourself, however, can be immensely difficult because of several issues, one of which rarely gets talked about. That issue is the fear of death. It sounds strange, but some psychologists say that all fear can be traced back to fear of death. In the context of reinvention this would be about death of the personality or the existing identity or structure and the familiarity of the status quo.

Without death there can be no creativity in life

We are genetically programmed to enter into an intense state of fear at the thought of our demise or anything we are attached to. Yet, the Buddhists say that without death, there can be no joy in life, no creativity. Or as Mary Catherine Bateson said at the BRC in February: “We need to be able to walk into the forest and see that all of its beauty is intertwined with the process of death feeding back into the life of the forest.”  David Whyte talks about it eloquently in this video, that death or destruction of the old is a necessary part of the artistic tradition. And, if we are the artists of our lives, our work, and our businesses it helps to periodically let go of the old.

Tags: Achieving your dreams, Buddhism, change management, David Whyte, economic downturn, economy, fear of death, Mary Catherine Bateson, Re-inventing yourself, Re-invention Brainstorm, reinventing your business, reinventing yourself, workplace solutions