Page 149 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

it is lived and see for yourself that the world only moves for you when

you act. —Werner Erhard

105. Try reinventing yourself

A person in one of my seminars came up to me during the break and pointed
at the title of my book Reinventing Yourself and told me she was offended by the
title.

“What’s so wrong with me that I have to reinvent myself?” she said.

“You don’t have to reinvent yourself,” I said. “And nothing has to be wrong
with you for you to do it.”

Fear of change is the root of most unhappiness. Companies are like this, as
well—companies who stay stuck in old ways of being clinging, clinging,
clinging as long as they can to comfort zones.

So what’s the answer to the question, Why should I reinvent myself? It’s kind
of like you are at the high school reunion, you are sitting at the table, and they
are playing all the songs that were popular when you were in high school, and
somebody comes up and says, “Please dance with me”, and you say to yourself
and to them, “Why should I dance?” Well, that’s an absurd question. Dance just
to dance. Dance just to have fun. Go on out there on the floor and dance and
you’ll see why you should dance. The same feeling is true with reinventing
yourself. Reinvent yourself and you’ll see why you are doing it. The real fun, the
real joy is in reinventing yourself. It isn’t in figuring out why.

106. Choose responding over reacting

The great psychologist Rollo May said, “Human freedom involves our
capacity to pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw
our weight.” People who enjoy being more and more creative through their days,
weeks, and lives are happy to learn the distinction between reacting and
responding.

Reacting occurs when I get an e-mail that angers or annoys me, and I send a

blistering reply that makes the relationship worse, or when a family member