Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Reinventing yourself Mid Career - Get back that spark !!


As a keen analyst of personal and organisational success, I had an inspiring discussion with a successful yet a spirit filled person earlier today. What I mean by spirit filled is, someone quite content, very content in fact, at peace with her self and the environment around her, yet looking for ways of achieving further success. Now this is great. You dont often meet such people in a given week, so I always enjoy such conversations and this was over lunch on a beautiful summer’s day in a lovely cafĂ© in Sydney's CBD.

During our conversation, I was asked for my advice on how you recreate or re-invent yourself especially in your middle years once you have achieved your goals that you have set for your self in your youth and reached a level of fulfilment. No doubt a degree of complacency often transcends with time with the achievement of goals and the long journey travelled in between.


Re inventing in mid years is tough, but a process many go through in mid life, especially during these current times of economic slowdown with so many people including senior levels executives out of work. Many very smart people struggle with the emotions of recreating one self. Often they feel lost in the way and find a multitude of negative thoughts and multiple insecurities getting in their way. The process is even made harder by friends, loved ones and countless head hunters who often unknowingly mostly in good faith help further reinforce the difficulty of finding employment or achieving a particular goal discussed as a possible option.

So what does one need to do to reinvent it self. The solution is in fact quite simple. And you might say,  yeah! Right, if so why are there so many people in this situation ?. It's simple but as in most cases not obvious. Even when it’s obvious only a minority will do what it is required.

Ok Let me tell you... Most of us know how. You were successful to-date was because you did the following and you did it relentlessly starting in your younger days.
1) You dreamt big dreams and through them you set clear goals for your self.
2) You were so passionate about achieving these goals,  with time you built a burning a desire within you to achieve these goals.
3) This burning desire that you created, transcended your subconscious mind. Positive thought processes stemming from your "dreams" further compounded upon it creating an "auto pilot" mode homing you towards your goals.
4) This combined process created belief, hope and faith and you believed that you will achieve these goals. Belief in your self. Strong belief that you will achieve these goals.
5) You then drafted a well constructed plan to achieve these goals and worked tirelessly to achieve them.
6) When ever you found resistance or met obstacles your burning desire well entrenched into your subconscious mind provided you with enormous persistence to over come any obstacle and you did. However big or small.
7) Your relentless approach towards these goals finally helped you achieve them..

Now you will read the above and say yes that’s pretty academic.
Yes the answer is simple and yes it's easy in theory but most of you have done it before.

To reinvent your self, You need to recreate your goals, the secret is in the goal setting, to re set goals that  have deep and emotional meaning to you. It could be wealth, education, philanthropy or health or all of them. Reinvention starts with the goals setting, you need to dream your large dreams, you then need to re build that strong burning desire to achieve these goals and follow the 7 step process above.

You can do it. Most of us have done it many times before, may it be
• Achieving an academic qualification
• Sporting achievement
• Owning a house
• Paying off a mortgage
• Marrying the partner of your dreams

You have done it before. You can do it a again..
Even if you think you have not done it before if you follow those principles you can do it.
You can reinvent your self and achieve anything you set your mind to. The secret lies in setting the course.

Remember a wise man said

“Set your path by the stars in the sky and not the lights of passing ships”



Dinesh De Silva is CEO of Nexgroup Asia Pacific, he and his team are available to speak to media , organisations or groups as a keynote / guest speaker on above. Contact him +612 8003 3342, via twitter @dineshdesilva or www.nexgroup.com.au 

NexGroup Asia Pacific, is a World Class Outsourcing business, providing Software development  Services.

Technical Skills : Java, Microsoft Dot Net, PHP, Python, Ruby, C#, Android, Iphone,  CA Service Desk, CA ITSM,  CA NSM,, Spectrum, , eHealth. 
Outsourcing Include : Offshore & OnShore software development, Software maintenenace, Outsourced developers, 

11 comments:

  1. A very powerful and thought provoking article, and certainly one we should all think about more - true that I've experienced this without even knowing on many of my more successful ventures.

    I will be sure to take this into my thoughts ongoing to raise the level and focus of my goals and how I achieve them.

    Thank you for the guidance Dinesh.

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  2. Thanks Leigh appreciate the feedback.. Keep Setting goals and continue Achieving ...

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  3. A great piece of work Dinesh. I enjoyed it as it is quite relevent for me. We sometimes tend to let our careers and life in general drift without focus.

    Thanks
    Gimantha

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  4. Gimantha, thanks very much for your feedback. All the best in achieving all your dreams.. Dream big dreams ....

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  5. Hey Dinesh
    Amazing , sorry the comment comes late. i will follow you blogs from now on.
    Cheers
    Sunil

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  6. Great insight Dinesh as always - you are a always looking to pioneer change - time to reset my goals!! Best Regards John

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  7. Hi Sunil, glad you liked it , keep achieving
    Dinesh

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  8. John
    Appreciate you sentiments
    Dream big goals and you will always get 'em as you have done always

    Dinesh

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  9. I loved the article, very thought provoking. I wonder whether it is about reinventing or continuous reviewing. Working towards the goals that are still relevant and embracing those that are new and shinny.

    Cheers
    JD

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  10. JD
    Thanks for your comments.
    certainly a thought provoking question.
    I guess it's to ensure that before you switch to new goals your currently goals are firmly entrenched into your subconscous mind and on auto pilot to avoid the possible dilution. Continuous review is important but I feel you are referring to renewal of goals which is of value.

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  11. Hemraj, thanks for your kind words.. I hope you will truly use its content in achieving your goals.. Keep me posted.

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