A Halloween Wake-Up Call
Most reinventions begin with a wake-up call. Some can be dramatic like a layoff or a major life transition. Other wake-up calls can stem from a seemingly minor event which becomes a turning point.
My first reinvention was prompted by what others might perceive as a trivial event— going trick or treating. It was the fall of 1990 and I was working as an attorney in a big law firm. I had arrived home from work early to take my eight-year-old son, Lance, trick or treating. Imagine my shock when he turned away from me and announced that he preferred to be accompanied by Mary Grace, his live-in nanny! At that moment, I became painfully aware that because of my 60-70 hour work weeks—I had been living on the fringes of my son’s life.
I had come of age at a time when girls were told we could
“have it all” and could successfully juggle a fulfilling
career with motherhood and a good marriage..So why
was I always feeling stressed, burned out and guilty?
It wasn’t supposed to be this way! I had come of age at a time when girls were told we could “have it all” and could successfully juggle a fulfilling career with motherhood and a good marriage. I had checked all the boxes and had “leaned in.” So why was I always feeling stressed, burned out and guilty?
I had graduated from law school at a time at time when women were still a minority in the legal profession. After passing the New York bar, I started legal practice with the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, followed by three and a half years working with the Navy Office of General Counsel. During this time, I married the love of my life and our family soon expanded to include our son.
When my husband retired from the Navy a few years later, we settled in Pittsburgh, PA where I worked as a research lawyer at Carnegie Mellon University. This was followed by a move to a large national law firm where I practiced business law, focusing on high-tech businesses. It was while I was working in what I thought was my “dream job”, that I experienced my wake-up call.
After that Halloween wake-up call, I re-assessed my life and concluded that I was living an outdated vision of success that had been shaped by my parents, my peers and the popular culture. I had been so busy building a career, starting a family, and relocating, I hadn’t taken the time to build a meaningful life.
A Radical Reinvention—From Law to Lipstick
As I got clear about what really mattered to me, I realized that because I had made my career my top priority, I wasn’t living a life aligned with my deepest values. I discovered that many of my most joyful and fulfilling work/life experiences had involved empowering other women and girls—whether it was volunteering as a Girl Scout leader in college, mentoring junior women attorneys or serving on the board of the Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery (P.O.W.E.R.).
It was time to redefine what success really meant to me.
After months of inner exploration, I concluded that a legal career wouldn’t allow me to live my version of meaningful success. Upon evaluating numerous options, I chose to radically reinvent myself by becoming an entrepreneur within the positive, women empowering culture of Mary Kay Cosmetics.
Within a year of leaving my job, I had built a dynamic sales team and stepped into a leadership role as an independent sales director. During my eighteen years as an award winning sales leader, I had the joy of inspiring, mentoring and training hundreds of women to reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs and leaders.
One of the most rewarding aspects of my reinvention was that it enabled me to design my life around my priorities. I was able to attend all of Lance’s sports and school events and continued to empower women as a volunteer for Dress for Success and a board member of both POWER and the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Organization for Women (NAWBO).
One of the interesting things about reinvention is that
we’re never finished. With each life transition, our priorities
shift and life calls us to reinvent ourselves again.
A Second Invitation to Reinvent
My second reinvention invitation arrived after my son left home for college. It was more subtle—an inner voice nudging me to expand beyond the Mary Kay world and mentor women who—like myself in the early 90s—are stuck in careers, roles or lifestyles that no longer fit who they are or who they want to become.
A cross-country move to the San Francisco Bay Area provided the perfect opportunity to reinvent my life and work. After several years of training, I became certified as a Professional Performance Coach and Dream Coach.®
When the 2008 global economic downturn hit, it became clear that the ability to reinvent ourselves was crucial to thrive in our fast-changing world. This inspired me to research how successful reinventors think, communicate and behave. I blended my findings with real world lessons from my own and other’s reinventions, years of leadership experience and my professional background to create my unique reinvention process.
The upheaval of the Covid pandemic offers extraordinary opportunities to reinvent our lives, our work and ourselves in exciting new ways that we may not have thought possible even a year ago!
Are you wondering whether you’re being invited to reinvent yourself?
Are you curious to find out how this process could work for you?
Let’s Talk!
Book a complimentary consultation with me to discover how I can empower and equip you to create a more joyful and fulfilling future.
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