There is an old adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” While this has been conventional wisdom for eons, it couldn’t be farther from the truth for anyone who desires to go through the process of personal or professional reinvention. The very last thing someone needs to be shackled by is the belief that they are too old to learn anything new. Unfortunately, those who believe this about themselves are destined to decline into irrelevance, missed opportunity, and old age. It’s sad and entirely unnecessary. The essence of reinvention is learning new tricks – lots of them.
Flashback to when I was a teenager. Without going into much detail, I made a decision early on that I was going to focus on what made me unique and not be overly concerned with what others thought. Actually, that is the nice way to say it, because in reality, I became defiant in my way of looking at what others were doing and then doing everything in my power to do the opposite. If a group was trending in one direction, I went the other way. If they espoused certain viewpoints, I became vocal in my opposition. If something was popular, I chose whatever was as far from it as I could find. I was a rebel in my own way; I lived as Bishop T.D. Jakes writes, “Never allow the crowd to define you or confine you.”
I lived most of my life this way. It had great benefits as well as deep hardships, but it worked for me – until I began to get older. Then, and what seemed to be suddenly, I began to realize that “the crowd” was starting to dictate the opportunities which would be presented me. As I got older, I could no longer solely rely on my determined self-direction. “The crowd” was gaining power over me, even as I doubled down on being my independent self. Age bias isn’t right, and is advocated nowhere in my basis for living, the scriptures, but it has become an unfortunate practice in modern culture. I realized that I had to do something about it.
About ten years ago I felt the leading of the Spirit to return to graduate school and begin to prepare for the day when “the crowd,” or at least a few leaders with an age bias, decided my value was determined by my age. (And, by the way, I wasn’t old by any standards.) Having not been a great student in the past, it was almost funny that I would even consider it. However, I went back, determined to buck “the crowd” one more time and prove that I could learn new tricks. Flash forward, and today I have earned my doctorate and am embarking on several related, but totally reinvented ways of carrying out my calling in life. I am doing things that I never would have expected to be doing ten years ago.
I am not finished with my reinvention, but I’m well on the way, and I feel younger today than I did when I began this reinvention journey. I have learned that age is not as much of the body as it is the mind. “The crowd” may have thought one way of me, but I went the opposite. This old dog, has learned new tricks. That is the reinvention lesson for you today. If you find yourself in a position in which you need to reinvent, the first thing to embrace is the belief that you can accomplish new skills, gain knowledge, and learn new tricks! It begins with believing you can and ignoring the ones who say you can’t.
Reinvention lesson #1: Believe you can!
Go out and reinvent yourself!
Lead well.