“I think I’m having a mid-life crisis,” he says with concern, “and I’m only 30 years old?!”

I listen with curiosity, stirring my iced coffee with the bamboo straw.

He leans across the table and lowers his voice, as if he’s telling me a secret:

“I’m making more money than I ever have in my life. But I don’t want to do it anymore. At least not how I’ve been doing it...”

It’s 2018. And the Bali café vibe is absolutely perfect.

Protein waffles. Fresh fruit. Organic coffee. Rice terrace views. And fast wifi.

I feel for him. Because I’ve been there in my own business, several times.

I feel like a hypocrite giving any sort of advice. So I just listen.

3 hours later…

I’ve crushed 2 protein waffles, a smoothie, and one of those really aesthetic fruit bowls that everyone likes to take photos of.

“I’m flying to Thailand tomorrow,” he says, slinging his laptop bag over his shoulder, “you should come…”

I opt out.

And spend the next 4 mornings at the same café, reliving our conversation through the pages of my journal.

What do you do when you got a good thing going, but you’re not enjoying it?

The Art of Reinventing Yourself…

Over the course of my 15+ year journey as an online business owner I’ve had to adjust my sails, and change direction, several times…

Just like my friend in the café that day…

A time seems to eventually come when despite things going ‘good’ they don’t seem to be going ‘right’.

Why is this?

From the outside looking in, everything looks perfect.

(People might even envy you, and applaud you on your success...)

But…

From the inside looking out, things feel out of alignment.

(Like your success, and life, is somehow not quite doing it for you… like there’s something missing…)

It can be very uncomfortable.

And a psychologically splitting experience.

Because people see you one way.

But you feel a completely different way.

You ever experienced this?

Zoom out: You are an ever-evolving piece of meat flying through the cosmos on a rock called Earth.

Everything is always changing.

Nothing is permanent.

N o t h i n g.

Your interests change. Your values change. Your desires change.

This is a part of evolution.

The Art of Reinvention: Someone who has taken the time to step back and re-calibrate their external world to match their evolving internal world (values, interests, and desires)

Now before you go and burn it all down (you little pyro you), hear me out…

When you evolve, your interests change. Right?

nods head

When this happens you can do 1 of 2 things:

Reinvention #1: Find new reasons to become interested and excited about your existing business (and life).

Ex: For my friend in Bali, his business started out as an exciting journey to make a ton of money. Then that got boring (his interests evolved beyond that)…

Instead of continuing to only see his business as a cash machine, he could choose to evolve his perspective:

Maybe seeing it as a vehicle to empower his customers and improve their experience of life?

I unno. Whatever tickles his fancy, really.

In this way, it’s a new lens to look at your existing business (and life) through.

What started out as a surface level journey to make lots of money, gives way to continuing layers of depth and evolution.

A lot of people never get started with a surface level journey because they don’t understand that this can become a doorway to infinite depth.

Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.

Okay, now… the second way is a little more destructive…

Reinvention #2: Burn it down. And Re-build.

This might look like selling your business and starting a new one that is more aligned with your updated values and interests.

Or moving to a new city… or starting a new hobby…

It’s changing things outside of you to align with things inside of you (ie: your new set of internal values.)

You evolved internally. And now you are syncing your external reality to match.

It’s sort of like changing out of the snow pants you’ve been wearing since you were a kid… and upgrading to a bigger, adult-size… so that you can finally fit yer thunder thighs in there.

Disclaimer: Be careful you’re not doing this every time things don’t go your way.

This can be a drastic move. And not one that I would recommend making often (unless you like diving headfirst into chaos).

But if there’s one piece of advice I can give to you it would be this:

DO NOT:

Evolve. And then re-calibrate your internal world to go back to align with your old external world.

This would be like trying to squeeze those thunder thighs back into the snow pants you wore as a kid.

Painful for you, and everybody watching…

This is called devolution. Or moving backwards. Or entropy.

And it can cause major internal discomfort… along with the feeling of living a life that’s not yours.

The Art of Reinventing Yourself is a natural reorientation towards what you want out of life.

It’s a re-alignment and syncing between your inner and your outer worlds.

It’s a trip to the skip shop for some new snow pants.

Although it can sometimes be scary. And disorienting.

It’s evolution. It’s forward motion.

And for those that see it as an opportunity,

it can be life changing.

I hope this helps.

Have a great day.

- Adam

CASE STUDY

This 146 page Case Study shares my personal experience as an Online Basketball Trainer who found a way to help more athletes while creating more freedom, alignment and simplicity in my life.