Welcome to episode #181 of the Own Your Best Life Podcast. I want to share with you that reinvention is possible. Even if you feel like you have needs or bills to pay. Even if your everyday experience feels like you’re just figuring out what’s next. It is possible. At this stage of your life, with all the demands you have or don’t have – this is the time to ask yourself not just what you want but what you need. Today’s podcast on reinventing yourself will have you wondering what you’re doing and not doing – and that one realization alone could change your life before you’re done listening to the podcast.

Here are four to-do’s that will make reinventing your life possible:

Be in Reinvention Mode

The first one is to be in reinvention mode. You need to reinvent yourself because every day we’re getting closer to our last breath. I think about death a lot and it has become one of the biggest reasons that I’ve gotten to the point where I started my own business and built a life that I truly love.

Something that has come up for me over the past year as I’ve been creating bigger things with my family, my business and in my corporate work is to ask myself who I want to be at that moment. I have so many interests and passions that I used to find were so different from others that I thought I’d have to become more like others to be accepted, but I’ve realized also that there is literally no one else like me and that is a beautiful thing.

The same thing goes for you. There is no one else like you who has that unique combination of the traits that you have. When you consider that next part of your life – this next chapter that you’re living – it would be a waste of time for us to keep trying to be like someone else, but instead radically change to be the most ourselves that we can be.

Make More and Faster Decisions

I love making decisions because they show me how far I’ve come. The other day I was considering how interesting it would be to do a retreat in Mexico and also one in New York at my home. I used to have so much heaviness making decisions like that. What to do next. How to invest my money. 

Yet, I’ve been reviewing how much time I save when I don’t allow rumination or feeling like a victim and I made a decision that I wanted to make the decisions within 24 hours unless I will have new information that would change my decision. I don’t waste time on decisions that could be made earlier anymore. I get clear on what I need to do and my decision-making process and I execute. So much of what we’re doing when we consider reinvention is making decisions and saying yes to things that we don’t feel fully ready for or qualified to do.

I had a client tell me about a delay in her decisions the other day and how she hesitated not because the decision was wrong but because she was so used to living her life by adding in more and more activities, that to tell someone no felt wrong even if she really felt like it was the right thing to do. It was her trying to align with her values, but feeling like she shouldn’t. This is why in our coaching work together, I’m always asking my clients to become more clear on their decisions more quickly – not because there is a rush, but because the delayed decisions take up mindshare and energy. We don’t see the benefits of unmade decisions – whether it’s the relief of finally deciding or the relief of getting the benefit of the decision. 

Build confidence along the way

Sometimes we don’t make decisions because of errors of thinking like “we shouldn’t have doubt” or “I should be more confident in my decision.” To reinvent yourself, you need to say yes to things that you don’t feel fully ready for or qualified to do. Our past will drive confidence but we’re not trying to recreate the past. We’re trying to be in the present moment and responding to things differently so that we have different and reinvented lives as a result.

This means that we’re always catching up to the belief that we can do something. Confidence comes from the belief in your ability to do something. I’ve often found that the ability to do something takes time and effort. Confidence will come, but it is a lagging indicator. If you don’t have confidence before you do something, that is not just ok but completely normal. 

Overconfidence is something that we don’t necessarily find as helpful. You don’t have to push yourself to be overconfident – you just have to realize that self-doubt and the fear of failure is part of the journey. That you will have what it takes to make the leaps that you want to make — and that it will be worth it.

I thought to myself that every time I made big decisions that changed my life, like going back to school, moving, being in a relationship with my partner, starting a business, investing in myself – I felt nervous and worried. Rarely was there a feeling of absolute certainty and pure excitement. If you think back, you’ll likely find that we are slow to move into these big decisions because we’re waiting until there is absolutely nothing that could go wrong – but that doesn’t happen. We delay our decisions until we feel we have to make them when we could have saved time and energy by looking at the decision now.

I have clients who have reinvented themselves through their work and their personal lives – and that is why they join my programs. They start to see themselves as much more wildly capable than they realized. More creative. More interesting and more interested in the world around them and some of their more creative pursuits. This is the power of reinvention. Many times, the first time I reflect back to them that they’re actually a creative person and to shift their whole identity to that persona is so powerful. We get so lost in the daily minutiae that we don’t question what our lives could be like if we changed one thing such as who we believed we could be and are. 

See yourself with a reinvented persona

One of my reinventions is to see myself as a spiritual teacher and coach. To be a Spiritual Achiever. To reinvent what I thought a spiritual teacher, achiever or coach even meant, looked like or could be. I felt like that was so foreign 5 years ago but as I live into the truest parts of myself, I see that what I teach and how I teach is truly both spiritual and focused in nature. I teach you how to love yourself and others. To have meaning and purpose in your life and work. To create money and eradicate the habits that don’t serve you from both the most loving and neutral perspectives. To hold this life as such a gift and to prize your presence over perfection, always. To see people as interconnected and energy as real. When I saw that persona in my own intentions for the next phase of my life, it felt bold and all the “who am I…” thoughts that accompanied this.

Yet, if we don’t see that in some years time that our life will no longer be there – that we won’t even be around in physical form, we realize the more important question to hold is “who am I not to…?” Why is it such a big deal for us to be our own best friends is because to switch our mindsets around and to change our beliefs requires us to acknowledge that even if reinvention is scary, being a shell of ourselves is even more scary.

Your reinvented persona has its own quirks and personality traits, but will also have an aspirational and emotionally true feeling. When you consider the self-esteem and calmness of this persona that you’ve reinvented for yourself, it’s natural to see that the level of authenticity is higher and it is truly even more safe to be uncomfortable learning how to live with your higher truths than to be uncomfortable because you’re living a life that doesn’t feel charged with your own energy.

If you’re ready to Own Your Best Life, I want to invite you to watch the free training on how to Stand Out and Lead, using spiritual, high-performance strategies. You can access the training at https://may-empson.mykajabi.com/stand-out-and-lead.

You can then apply to join my Spiritual Achiever® program, where you’re going to create your next chapter with spiritual and high-performance strategies to achieve time and financial freedom using my proven method. It’s risk-free. You either start seeing results within your first month or I give you your money back. Schedule your call HERE. We’ll see you inside.

Want to know more about what happens when you join?

1. When you join Spiritual Achiever® Coaching you’ll be supported for a full year: Career Revelation Academy: A 5-step career change process (if you have a job you want to stay in, I’ll show you how to love it even more) that can launch you into your next career chapter in 30 days.
2. 2x/month group training and coaching on Spirituality, Achievement, Earth Energy and Harmony. You’ll know how to design your days for breakthroughs, create a personal brand and community, lead yourself and others through change, become more physically and mentally fit, reduce stress and reinvent what’s possible in this next chapter of your life.
3. Discover your Leadership Strengths and Branding Workshop: Increase your awareness of what makes YOU different from others and how to become even better at your genius zone.
4. Your Best Year workshop: Create your one year plan and design this next year, no matter what time of the year it is.
5. Your Next 5 Years one-day virtual retreat: Vision what’s possible 5 years from now and break out of your old routines so you can step into new habits, behaviors and routines.
6. Tickets to all in-person Spiritual Achiever retreats (accommodations not included): Highly immersive and intimate gatherings where we spend time in nature, experience energy work, eat and move well – all while making big decisions and committing to what’s next for us.
7. Monthly 1:1 Coaching Sessions: To help you break through obstacles, define your individual path, and to work on both strategy and mindset.

The next step?

Schedule a consultation to get clarity on how coaching can help you on your journey.

Once you’re accepted into the program, you’ll receive a calendar invite for a 2-hour deep dive 1:1 session to map out your personal goals and your own year-long journey.

You’ll have immediate access to the Spiritual Achiever process and philosophy – how to achieve your biggest goals and reinvent your life.

You’ll have immediate access to 5 modules of Career Revelation Academy – to love your career even more and launch that next chapter of your career in 30 days.

You’ll have the calendar invites for the upcoming group calls and retreats.

The next round starts on 9/20.

If this speaks to you, I can’t wait to talk to you live: Schedule a consultation.

Reach out at www.mayempson.com/contact for more information on my Spiritual Achiever coaching program. You’ll figure out what’s next and actually go and do it. 

That’s it for this week. Have an amazing one and I’ll talk to you next time.