Wendy: Today, I want to share with you my thoughts on bouncebackability. I want to talk about what it is, and why it's so important. And one little thing you can do to work on your bouncebackability muscle, because we all can do this, we all can have the ability to bounce back from obstacles and challenges in a way that keeps us moving forward.
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Welcome to Reinvention Rebels, stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reimagined life on their own terms, to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, Wendy Battles. Ready for a dose of inspiration? Let's get to it.
Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Reinvention Rebels podcast. I'm your host, Wendy, and I'm so glad you're here. If you are brand new, you have stumbled upon the Reinvention Rebels podcast, I want to extend a very warm welcome. I'm really glad you're here. As my regulars know, this is the place to come for information and inspiration about reinventing ourselves. We talk a lot about how we can reinvent ourselves at any age or any stage. Here you'll find a mix of solo episodes where I share all kinds of ideas with you, and thoughts, questions, things to get you into action, as well as very dynamic and engaging guest episodes, with really extraordinary women between 50 and 90, that have reinvented themselves, and really continue to do so because so often, we have reinventions within reinventions.
I do the same thing myself. I'm still always trying to figure out, how can I tweak things, change them up, and refine things, as I continue on that path because it is ongoing. I know many of us have reinvented ourselves many times in many different ways over our adult life.
I have to tell you a quick story. My mom is turning 90, which seems like a huge milestone, 90. Some of us are happy if we get to 60, 70, 80, so 90 feels like a big deal. We had a beautiful, joyful party for her and she's starting to slow down a little bit. And, of course, with the pandemic, we've all been isolated now just trying to figure out what is life sort of post-pandemic beginning to come together. She hadn't seen so many of her friends and family in so long. And our first cousins came up, or really her first cousins, they came up and totally surprised her from Georgia. Everything about it, was just the perfect day. And it reminds me that we have to take time for these things.
I know that I can get so busy, and so wrapped up in my life. Working in the podcast and all the other things that I do that sometimes those things get lost, but it just reminded me just how important it is to take time to celebrate and to be with the people that are most important to us. So that was really a reminder to me, but hopefully to all of you too.
Now, you might remember that on the last solo episode a couple of weeks ago, I kicked the ear off by talking about showing up for ourselves and why that is so key to reinventing. And I was thinking a little bit about it because I was thinking about how I showed up for myself a lot this summer in new ways. For me, a lot of it was about having fun, and not taking myself so seriously, as I sometimes can do, and that was awesome. I just did it in many different ways, connecting with people, with my husband, with good friends, doing fun stuff, but I also was thinking about it recently that what I wasn't doing, that I'm now kind of tweaking, just trying to find that balance. I wasn't getting enough sleep; I was staying up way too late. I get a bit crazy hour, like 4:45 during the week to work on the podcast, so I was definitely not getting enough sleep. I also wasn't eating that well, to be honest.
I usually do all this cooking and I was having so much fun, and that really wasn't. I was just sort of giving myself permission to eat whatever, but that catches up with us. All that to say, that showing up ourselves is also about being willing to be flexible, being willing to change things up. We might show up for ourselves in one way and that works for a while, but then we realize we need to shift again. I think that's a great metaphor for reinvention. The openness to changing, trying new things. Sometimes things work for a while, and then they don't, and sometimes we need to shift gears, so I am good, I'm working on. I have some healthier eating and I'm being really intentional about trying to get more sleep. I'll keep you updated on that and how it's going.
Today, I want to talk about this idea that popped into my head recently, just this word one day, bouncebackability. I don't even know why, but it popped into my head. I wrote it down and said, "I have to noodle on this." It got me inspired to think about it. What is bouncebackability to me? Why did I even think about that? In some way, it clearly connects to reinvention.
Well, I got thinking about it, and I realized that it is so connected to this idea of reinvention.
Today, I want to share with you my thoughts on bouncebackability. I want to talk about what it is, why it's so important, and one little thing you can do to work on your bouncebackability muscle. One thing you can do to work on your bouncebackability muscle because we all can do this. We all can have the ability to bounce back from obstacles and challenges in a way that keeps us moving forward. First of all, what is this idea of bouncebackability?
When that word came to mind, my first thought was resilience. I started thinking about the Reinvention Rebels that I've interviewed, and they are very resilient, they have the ability to confront obstacles to have them, show up in their path, and to be able to really navigate around them. It doesn't mean they're ignoring them, and sometimes they do throw us off track, but they have the ability to get back on track.
Interestingly, when you look in the dictionary, resiliency is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from distractions, which I thought was really interesting. Also, this idea of toughness.
This idea that we can bounce back and that we're resilient, I'd really feel like that is part of it, but I was thinking that sometimes it's not about even responding quickly and working through something. Sometimes it takes time. And I think it's more than just resiliency, so being resilient is part of what bouncebackability is to me, but then I also came up with a couple of other things. It's resilience, but it's also determination because you have to have that mindset that I am going to do this, that I am going to navigate around this and I'm going to work through this that I'm going to get to the other side of whatever those obstacles are that are in my way of reinventing myself or whatever else might come up.
We're resilient and we can respond to things ideally in a quick way. But we also have this mindset of determination that I am going to do that, so that's number two. Number three is this idea of trust.
Trust is one of those things that sometimes is tough for me. I want to trust that things are working out, but sometimes we can't see that they're working out. I can get all caught up and trying to manipulate things to make them work. Not people, but just like things in my life that I want to work out. And I feel when we have bouncebackability, we are resilient, we are determined, but there's this idea of trust, that we trust things will work out. That we trust we might not have all the answers, that we trust that things are unfolding in just the right way, even though when we are challenged by things, often doesn't feel like it does it. This idea of trust, that we learn to trust ourselves and the process, and perhaps something bigger than ourselves to help guide us, and that those three factors together, resilience and determination, and trust, aka, letting go, when we bring those three things together. That's to me bouncebackability.
It's a skill, it's a muscle, it's something we practice, and hopefully, we get better at it. I feel like I'm a pretty resilient person, I feel like I'm pretty good at bouncing back from things, and seeing obstacles as opportunities for me to grow. I usually, I'm pretty determined, not always, sometimes I had to work on that, sometimes I can get into a low vibration, and not feel as sure about things, but when I'm really in a higher vibration, I have great determination that I can do X, or I can overcome X. That trust thing is something I'm always working on, but I feel like I'm growing in that area, that I'm learning how to trust more, trust the process more, trust that things are working out. Even when there are obstacles, they're all for a good reason. And that it always works out in the end. It always works out for the best, even though it doesn't always feel that way in the moment. So, resilience, determination, and trust, what I like to call a winning combination to build bouncebackability.
Our ability to really bounce back and keep on going with the belief that we are in our lane and things are unfolding in just the right way. The question then is, why is that so important?
Well, clearly, when we have bouncebackability, we are more likely to stay the path to keep going, to move forward, to understand and see the bigger picture. Obstacles always can happen, but if I have this approach, if I have this bouncebackability belief and I'm continuing to build that muscle, so maybe it wasn't so great. The last time I had an obstacle, but the next time, I have more trust in myself, I have more trust in the process, I'm more determined. We can build that over time. I think that bouncebackability can be key to us overcoming the obstacles in our reinvention path, on that reinvention journey, and then continuing to grow, to shine, to make a difference, to step into who we're meant to be. It is so important as a tool in our toolkit, as we work on reinventing ourselves. This brings me to a question for you.
One of them is really is, where do you see yourself? Where do you rate yourself on a scale of one to 10 with your bouncebackability factor? Where would you be? One being low,10 being high. If you were to rate yourself, where would you be? So that's the first question. Then the second question is something for you to noodle on. Who is the person in your life that you think has a high bouncebackability factor? You know, the person who is always able to see the bigger picture, the person that can have obstacles and take them in stride. It's not always easy, but they have the ability to know that they can get through it. They're determined to keep moving forward, maybe it's a little sidetracked, but then they're back on track and they trust that things are unfolding and working out.
I know that if you think of friends, family, colleagues, or people in your life, there is someone that has that bouncebackability factor, and I want you to just start noodling on who that person is, because when we fall on those tough times when we are faced with obstacles when we're not sure that we can do it, that's when we want to lean into our person, our bouncebackability person. Whether it's connecting with them, calling them from afar, or thinking about how they navigate through their challenges, they can be our bouncebackability ally. So, I'd love for you to noodle on it, and begin to think about who is your person. What does that look like? In what way can they help you? Which I know was really more than one question. I said one question, and that was a whole bunch, but I think there's really good food for thought, in this concept of bouncebackability at how we can develop our muscles over time.
Please give that some thought, noodle on it, and feel free to reach out with questions and thoughts about that. Check out some of my recent posts on Instagram about bouncebackability and how we develop our muscle. Let's continue to do this, let's build our muscle and know that it's key to our Reinvention Rebel journey.
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I have to tell you that I am excited about next week. I have a great episode; I cannot wait to share the interview with you, Carol Hill-Evans is amazing. This 72-year young, Reinvention Rebel, has quite the invention story that I know will inspire you, which includes being an elected official in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, after a career doing many other things. But how she got there is fascinating, empowering and so interesting.
I want to remind you that if you are grooving with this episode, and you're like, "Yes, I want to develop my bouncebackability muscle. Yes, I want to think about how I can reinvent myself, but I'm not really sure where to start." I got to point you to this short audio I have, a free download, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity and Inspire Your Reinvention Rebel Journey.
It's hard to forget where to start sometimes when we want to reinvent ourselves. I've got five questions for you to think about that will kick start your Reinvention Rebel journey. So, details are in the show notes, and I can't wait to talk to you next week. In the meantime, keep shining your light. The world needs you and everything you have to offer.
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Hey, Rebel. If this episode inspired you to think about what's possible in your life, I'll share a little secret. Any of us can reinvent ourselves, no matter where we are in our lives, any age, any stage, we just have to decide to get started. Here's a super simple way for you to get going with your reinvention dreams. Download my audio, 5 Questions to Spark Your Curiosity and
Inspire Your Reinvention Rebel Journey. I share five key questions that will spur your thinking, help you uncover your dreams, and motivate you to take action, because if not now, when? Details in the show notes. Let's get inspired together.
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