One of the best things about life is that you can change yourself completely. At any stage…at the age of 18, or 40, or 50, or 60, or even 100…without moving to a different town or a different job…you can redefine yourself.

There’s a great quote by George Bernard Shaw:

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

With that in mind, are three practical tips for recreating yourself.

1. Decide What You’re Going to Enjoy

The things we enjoy help define us. They’re part of our lifestyle. However, it’s easy to fall into habits that aren’t necessarily bringing us joy.

What do you like to eat? You might be bored with your diet. Maybe you want to make a delicious smoothie every morning. Maybe you want to eat Indian food several times a week because it’s your favorite. Maybe you’re sick of your beer habit and want to kick it to the curb. Maybe you want to become known for making amazing cheesecakes.

What do you like to wear? Maybe you want to wear a white shirt every day (I worked with someone once who did.) Maybe you want to wear more bright colors, more vintage looks, or athleisure wear. For most of us, changing your style takes a little longer than some other changes, because we can’t buy a bunch of new clothes all at once. But there may be things in the back of the closet that get moved to the front of the closet again.

Do you like reading books? Are you into a certain kind of TV show, movie, or podcasts? Is there a certain kind of music you adore?

Is there a hobby you’d like to try…or a hobby or habit that’s gone by the wayside, that you’d like to pick up again? Do you have a signature color?

Choose a few things you really enjoy, or what you think you’d enjoy. Make them more of a part of your everyday life.

 

2. Decide On a Few Core Personality Traits

Whoa, whoa, whoa, you might be thinking. I can’t just decide on personality traits! I can’t change overnight!

You might be right about that. If you’re trying to learn a new way of reacting to people and engaging with the world, it might take some time and practice. But once you have an idea of the kind of person you want to be, and you focus on it, you can change. People do it all the time.

If you’re really just deciding to be your true self again, you may find that you’re able to do that very quickly.

Either way, keep the image of your ideal self in mind, and then as you go through the day, play the role of that ideal self. This is really empowering. While you don’t have control over a lot of things that happen, you can start exerting more and more control over how you respond in every situation.

If you can’t decide what kind of core personality traits you want, imagine how you’d like a friend to describe you to someone who didn’t know you well. “Oh, you’ll love (your name here.) They’re so (adjective), (adjective), and (adjective.) And they’re really into (one of the things you enjoy here.)”

3. Tell People What Kind of Person You Are

Here’s a funny thing about people: they generally believe whatever you tell them about yourself. If you tell a coworker, “I like to look on the bright side,” or you tell your sister-in-law, “I’m very social,” they’ll usually accept it.

But you may be thinking, “Wait a minute. That’s not right. My coworkers already know I don’t like to look on the bright side. I’ve been complaining to them for years, and I’m as sick of it as they are, but there’s no way to change their minds about me now.”

Well. you’re wrong again. Here’s the thing: most people don’t spend a ton of time thinking about you. Why? Because they’re thinking about themselves, obviously. So when you tell them something about yourself, even if it contradicts what they knew about you before, their file on you in their brain gets updated. They may think, “huh, that’s new” or even “since when?”, but if you’re being that new person you’re telling them you are, you won’t believe how fast that outdated file of you will wind up in the trash.

 

If you want to reinvent yourself, you don’t have to wait for the New Year, for graduation, for next Monday…or for anything. You can always start right now.

If you’d like to share your experiences about reinventing yourself, we would love to hear them. Go ahead and let us know in the comments below! And if you’d like more in-depth exercises about finding your true self and remaking your life, check out my guided journal, The Book of Dreams Come True. It might be the fresh inspiration you need.

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great week, you amazing person!