Reinvent yourself. Reinvent your company. Reinvent your world.

Welcome to another conversation about change and how we can ride the waves of change, rather than be crushed by it. 

In one of our previous video+blog features, we discussed why the title of Chief Reinvention Officer is reserved just for you. And in this brand new conversation here, we relate to a frequent comment/question we receive about reinvention: how can I acquire this unique talent because clearly, I do not possess it?

If that is your worry each time you are facing a small change or a huge one, a fundamental crisis you are stuck and confused with, here is a surprise for you: you are already a reinventor. Not only that you are a good reinventor, but you have literally done it for thousands of times! You don’t need to acquire change and reinvention talent. You just need to be uneducated. In other words, you always had the talent, but you were educated out of it.

Let me illustrate: I traveled all around the world, I lived in Asia, in the USA, in Europe, for longer periods of time, at least 10 years in each of the respected continents. And wherever I am, no matter what political, economic, cultural or psychological system I am in, I always see the exact same thing as I enter an elementary school.

We teach our kids everywhere one exact same thing from the first day they enter school. Do you have an idea what that might be? Remember yourself, or your child, nephew, perhaps a little brother or sister entering the first day of school? What is it that kids are learning everywhere the same – in Ghana, Brazil, China, India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Slovenia, Ohio… they always learn the same exact thing.

You probably first thought of mathematics, or perhaps the name of the teacher, or you had something else in mind. However, the one thing common for all is that: all kids learn to sit still. How did this happen and why do all schools teach the same thing? 

The answer is simple: they teach us to sit still for 40 minutes, so we can survive an eight, ten or 12-hour workday or so we can survive a 30, 40, or even 50 years of our career in the exact same company, doing the exact same post. Why? Because for more than hundred years the world was changing very slowly. Things did not happen as quickly as they are happening today. Therefore, we needed our kids to start getting ready for the fact that what they know to do naturally from birth, is no longer necessary.

Have you ever met an unmotivated baby? A baby that is simply not interested in change? Unless it’s not some tragic story and the baby is unfortunately not well physically or psychologically – any baby loves to reinvent. First, they learn that they have hands. I remember when my daughter learned that she has hands. She started crazy reinventing herself because she discovered she has two more tools she wasn’t aware of having before. Each time you went from one

Each time you went from one step to another, you sat or you stood on your feet for the first time, when you took your first step… you were, in essence, reinventing yourself again and again and again. All throughout your childhood, until reaching the age of 5 or 6, when you first entered school, your education started educating you out of reinvention so that you are prepared to live in a very stable world.

However, that world – once very secure and never changing – where you can conduct your eight hours shift, over the time span of your 40-year-long career, in the exact same company, is no longer the same. You don’t need to acquire a special, rare talent of reinvention. You just need to reawaken what you already are. You are a naturally born reinventor, you were just educated out of it. 

So how do you reawaken that talent?

Start small, by taking small assignments. Which is actually our call to you for this week! Write down one thing you can do in the next ten days, that will urge you to reinvent. It if is only brushing your teeth with your left hand, given you always have done with your right hand, that is already a step in the right direction. Even this small change is set to change the pattern of your thinking, change the way your brain works… as you will probably get a little bit of toothpaste on yourself. 🙂

So, go on – write down that one thing you can do for the next ten days, that will invite reinvention back into your life. And remember – you had the special talent of reinvention within you all along!

P.S. In case you missed our latest video where we attempt at breaking a myth, that innovation does not happen so often, don’t miss to check out here.

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