The Art of Reinvention Is Knowing What Deserves Continuity

About this article:
In The Reinvention, a marketer on rebuilding themselves, their brand, or both — the moment everything had to change, what they had to let go of, and what you can only learn when you have to start over.

Sometimes reinvention is a choice. Sometimes circumstances announce that it's happening, and you're invited to catch up.

A role ends. Expectations change. The work you’ve spent years mastering starts to look different. Or you find yourself wondering whether the life you’ve built still makes room for what you want next.

Meanwhile, life keeps lifing.

People need you. Responsibilities continue. The laundry has shown remarkably little interest in your evolution.

Disruption can create an opportunity to reflect on questions we’ve been postponing.

What does success mean to me now? What do I want to contribute? What is this stage of my life calling for?

I’m considering those questions myself.

Knowing that something needs to change doesn’t tell you what comes next.

That takes a different set of questions.

Take stock before charting the path

Growth doesn’t require throwing away everything you’ve built. Some things provide a foundation. Others may need a substantial break.

Marketing science offers a useful lens. Ehrenberg-Bass research examines how brands come to mind when someone needs something: a bank for a business loan, for example, or a place to stay on a trip. These are “buying situations.”

A logo, a color combination, or a familiar jingle can help people recognize a brand before they see its name. When people learn to link these cues reliably to a particular brand, they become “distinctive brand assets.” Their value lies in helping people recognize whose product or message they’re encountering.[1]

People can have recognizable cues, too. When I asked a friend what came to mind about me, my bob haircut made the list. For her, it was a visual detail she associated with me. I’d need to ask more people to know how widely that association holds. Apparently, though, the bob has been doing some networking.

The useful question is what people have actually come to associate with us. What do they rely on us for? What experience supports that?

Personal development extends beyond reputation, of course. What people know us for is one source of information. We also have interests they haven’t encountered, capabilities we haven’t developed, and ambitions we may barely have articulated.

What is being called for?

A promotion can change what people need from you. An economic shift can change the opportunities available. A decision to enter another industry can require a substantial period of learning.

Start by asking what the situation requires and what you want from your life within it.

Imagine a leader known for being diplomatic taking responsibility for an entire department during a restructuring. Listening remains valuable. Their role now also requires setting priorities, explaining difficult tradeoffs, and making decisions that everyone may not support.

They need to develop a way of leading that fits those responsibilities. They can carry their respect for people into that development.

Herminia Ibarra’s research helps explain why this can be difficult. We can become attached to a description of ourselves: “I’m the person who brings everyone together.” A new role may require behavior we haven’t associated with that description.

Ibarra studied professionals entering more senior roles who learned by trying approaches, considering feedback, and deciding what worked for them.[2] Her work suggests that we can discover ways of leading through practice. We don’t have to know exactly who we’ll become before we begin.

The question is whether the new approach serves the situation and fits our values. Feeling unfamiliar is part of what we examine.

Preserve, reconsider, evolve

These are the questions I’m using to think about the path ahead. They make room for what we’ve earned and what we have yet to discover.

Preserve: What remains valuable and important to me?

In marketing, we ask which situations bring a brand to mind. There’s a useful personal question here, too: where could what you already know become valuable next?

You may have developed a gift for explaining complicated ideas, building relationships, or helping people navigate uncertainty. A change in circumstances could give that capability a different application.

Before deciding you need to start from scratch, examine what you're carrying with you and where it could help.  You may also discover what you need to learn.

Consider your relationships and commitments, too. Which do you want reflected in the next chapter?

Ask a few people who know you in different contexts: “What would you rely on me for?” Then ask for an example.

Look for recurring themes and differences. Someone who knows you through one role may see a different part of you from someone who has collaborated with you elsewhere.

Compare their observations with your own intentions. Being good at something doesn’t obligate you to spend the rest of your life doing it. It does give you a capability whose future use you can consider.

Reconsider: What no longer fits, and what have I stopped questioning?

Look at familiar definitions of success, expectations you’ve accepted, and habits that organize your time.

Do you still want what this path offers, including the experience of pursuing it? Which choices are yours? Which reflect practical obligations? What might need an honest conversation?

Life stage matters. You might accept work that doesn’t fully resonate because it offers learning or stability. Later, you might choose to concentrate on gifts you understand more clearly. An experienced leader changing industries may become a beginner again.

Ask what you are trying to make possible now.

Evolve: What needs to develop, and what could help me learn?

You may have a clear destination. You may have only a question.

The change could involve how you lead, how you present yourself, or the field you work in. Someone moving from finance into marketing might consider an MBA, alongside its cost and the alternatives. Someone reconsidering success might first explore what a different working week would involve.

Becoming a beginner again can feel risky when people already trust your expertise. You may wonder what struggling with something new will say about you.

It helps to remember what you’re bringing to the experience. You can be new to an industry while bringing years of judgment, relationship-building, or research experience.

Then give yourself a manageable way to learn. Choose an experiment, decide what you hope to discover, and consider what you can afford in time, money, and effort. That might be a collaboration, practical study, or an opportunity to contribute in a new setting.

Pay attention to what you discover. Did the work hold your interest? Where were you useful? What required more development? Did the experience change what you wanted?

Set a time to reflect. Let the experience help you judge whether the direction deserves a larger commitment. A new direction needs room in the life you actually have.

What you learn may change what you want to preserve, reconsider, or evolve.

Make room

You don’t have to feel cheerful about disruption to identify choices within it.

Some choices will require patience and support. Others may open possibilities you hadn’t seriously considered.

At this stage in my life and career, I’m looking at what success means, where I want to contribute, and what I want to keep developing. I’m interested in the foundations worth carrying forward and the possibilities that need an opportunity to become real.

When you’ve reached a turning point, how have you decided what to keep, what to question, and what to try?

Life will keep lifing while we work it out. We can give ourselves a little room to consider where we go next.