Do you sometimes wish you can wipe clean the slate of your past? Do you wonder how you can change the way you are perceived and start all over again? I have and many of us might have gone through that introspection at one time or the other. One person that exemplifies the question above for me is Mo Abudu.
Mo has done a fantastic job of reinventing herself and is a great motivator to many people on believing in themselves, their abilities, understanding who they want to be and taking positive and practical steps to achieving these objectives. To the best of my knowledge her media debut was with her TV talk show Moments with Mo. She later became the CEO of Ebony Life TV and is now a movie mogul, with the production of acclaimed movies to her credit. She has completely metamorphosed, changed the narrative about who she is and how she is perceived.
We all like what we see today and want to associate with it and are inspired by it. But, I can assure you that she did not achieve this reinvention and growth without a lot of hard work and focus. Many of us have the potential to achieve this same level of success and fame. The question is, what are you doing about this potential? Potential is a word filled with optimism, possibilities, fulfilment, and greatness. But, many of us do not fulfil our potential. We live our lives with unfulfilled potential. Florence Littauer, a speaker and author, in her book Silver Boxes, wrote about her father, who always wanted to be a singer but never was. She said he died with the music still inside him.
Florence’s comment about her father leaves me very sad, because many of us have potential. When asked to talk about the things we want to do, we can paint a vivid and palpable picture of what we want to do or who we want to become. Many of us have gifts we do not hone and these gifts are withering away inside of us. John Maxwell said, “not reaching your potential is like dying with the music still inside of you”.
If this article strikes a chord in you, these are pertinent questions to ask yourself and work towards answering as you start to reinvent yourself:
• Do you like what you are doing now? If yes, how can you do it better and ensure that you do it to a point that it elevates you to a level where it changes the narrative about you. If not,
• What would you like to do? It is important to spend time understanding what you like. Many of us are in jobs we currently are not excited about. I knew what I liked doing early in my career, which was to make things happen. Give me a blank slate, tell me what you hope to achieve and this gets me very excited and passionate. Combining the above scenario with a sales and marketing role, which was achieving targets and working with teams to achieve these targets gave me a lot of passion and energy. If you come across someone doing an assignment with passion, there is big difference. It is said, that one person with passion is greater than ninety-nine who have only interest.
• Can you do what you like to do? Be honest about this, evaluate your ability. Where you fall short, consider whether you can be trained to achieve your objective.
• Do you know why you want to do what you would like to do? Why you want to do what you want to do is very important because what drives you is very key to ensuring that you succeed. If your objective is superficial and not from deep within you, the reinvention drive will not succeed. Your desire to reinvent yourself must be for altruistic reasons otherwise you may not succeed. When you do things for the right reason it gives you inner strength and resolve, because reinvention takes time, can be very challenging and many issues will come up that can deviate you from your goals and objectives. Knowing you are doing it for the right reasons will keep you going and power your resolve.
• Do you know people who do what you’d like to do? The example I used above, Mo Abudu – is a great inspiration for me, especially her intentionality and determination. Somebody, once asked me, “why not Oprah”. Yes, Oprah is also an inspiration for some of the things I will like to do” – especially in the media space. Who is your inspiration? Who has done what you’d like to do and succeeded in it? What steps are you taking to studying and understanding what these individuals have done?
• Will you pay the price to do what you want to do? Reinvention does not come easy. It involves plenty of hard work and we are usually our own worst enemies. James Thorn said, “probably the most honest self-made man that ever was, was the one we heard say, I got to the top the hard way, fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way”. John Maxwell said, “taking the steps necessary to live your dreams and do what you do want to do will cost you. You will have to work hard. You will have to make sacrifices. You will have to keep learning and growing and changing. The question is are you willing to pay the price?”
Mo has paid the price and reaped the benefits and many admire what she has achieved and who she is today. People say there are two great days in a person’s life, the day you were born and the day you discover why. It is possible, she has discovered why or she may be on another reinvention drive to further enhance her stature. Let’s take a cue from Mo, there are many good examples of individuals who have reinvented themselves, but hers is one that we can see and relate with today, because it is current and happening right now.
I wish you a happy new year, Reinvention and a NEW YOU!
