Today, I want to share three qualities, I believe these amazing reinvention rebels possessed. That helped them create this perfectly imperfect mindset of action, to propel them forward in their reinvention journey.
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Wendy: 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 am so glad you're here. I'm your host, Wendy. I want to welcome all my new listeners. Thank you for finding this podcast and listening in. This is the place to come for information and inspiration about how you can start, continue, or hopefully get to that finish line in your reinvention rebel journey and this idea that we can reinvent ourselves at any age or any stage. There really aren't any limits, it's about our willingness and openness to lean in and see new possibilities, especially as we age. Today, we are talking about the idea of perfectly imperfect action as a key ingredient to fuel our reinvention rebel journey. And I'll share more about that in just a moment but I do want to ask real quick, did you have a chance to listen to last week's episode with Carol Hill-Evans? I loved it so much. I loved the conversation I had with her. She is inspiring, she is full of grace, she is brave, and courageous. I loved her story. I just loved how she became elected to public office at 66. First of all, most of us wouldn't even dream of going into politics, forget later in life. But what I really love is, how she is making a difference, how she is all about serving her community, and how she's really navigated this reinvention journey and continues to reinvent herself now at 72. If you haven't listened yet, I really encourage you to do so. It's a really wonderful episode and you'll find a link to it in the show notes.
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Let's talk reinvention, let's talk about perfectly imperfect action. Let me start by asking you a question. Have you ever had a dream or big idea, something you were so excited about? You're like, "I'm going to do X." You start working on it, and you're making progress but then you decide, "Hmm, you know, I don't think I'm quite ready yet." I need to just do more things, I need to dot more i’s and cross more t’s, so I'm not ready yet. You keep working at it, but you don't quite get there or it takes you so long that maybe you lose some of your momentum.
I, growing up even as an adult, was really stuck on doing everything perfectly, wanting to make sure everything was lined up just so. But that got in the way of me sometimes getting into action, that got in the way of me experiencing this full sense of joy but whatever I was doing because I was caught up in those details and when we're reinventing ourselves, so much of this is getting started about not being so stuck on it unfolding in a perfect way. But the experience of the journey of just dipping your toe in, in whatever way it works for you, but going for it and that's the idea of perfectly imperfect action. We don't always know all the answers, we may be afraid, we may not know what's on the other side. But Reinvention Rebels, they are willing to work through those feelings and get into action, even if it's imperfect, even if they're not sure what they're doing, even if they're all kinds of-- Hmm, "I don't know how this will unfold." That's okay, they do it.
Let me just give you a couple of examples of what I mean. Angel who I interviewed a couple of seasons ago, is amazing. She was making skincare products in her kitchen. She had the opportunity to provide 10,000 units of this amazing body butter that she makes to Essence Magazine for their subscription box. She said, "Yes." She didn't know what she was doing and she had never even been involved in manufacturing. She didn't know how to even go about it but she just said, "Yes." And over time she figured it out, but that was perfectly imperfect action, because there were stumbles along the way. But she course-corrected, and she went on to start this amazingly successful business, Maison 276 that she runs now full-time today and she went for it. There's my friend, Kelly, who was a teacher, but she had this love of photography. And she just started working on this dream of hers on the side, started working with clients, started building up her clientele. At one point, she got so confident that she decided to do it full-time and quit her job. That's again this idea of perfectly imperfect action because of course, not everything is worked out perfectly, the way she imagined. She has made so much progress and she's got this beautiful business. And what I love so much is that she is celebrating women in this business, photographing women, especially midlife women, and following that passion of hers. Again, did her homework but didn't wait till everything had to be perfect. At some point, she said, "This is it. I trust it's going to work out, I am going to go for it." When we are open to that idea of perfectly imperfect action, we can dip our toe in, kind of figure it out, maybe stumble but course correct and that makes all the difference. I do believe that there's something about the mindset of these reinvention rebels who decide to go for it. I've noticed that there are some common threads.
Today, I want to share three qualities I believe these amazing reinvention rebels possess that helped them create this perfectly imperfect mindset of action to propel them forward in their reinvention journey. The first one is that they are open to making mistakes, and they see mistakes as opportunities. You know, when we're really stuck in our perfectionism mind, those mistakes seem like a big deal. "Oh, gosh, I wish I hadn't done that." I shouldn't have done that but when you have shifted your mindset to this perfectly imperfect action, you can see that "Ah, I didn't do that so well." But that's okay because I learned something else along the way so mistakes can be opportunities. Number two, they embrace feedback from others. Sometimes we mess something up, and it doesn't work out the way we want but if we're open to getting feedback from other people, again, it can help us in our journey. So, this open mindset, when we're in this mindset of perfect imperfection I can listen to feedback from other people that can propel me forward. Number three, sure, we mess up sometimes, and it doesn't work out the way we want, but Reinvention Rebels have less negative self-talk and more self-determination. They see those things, "Okay, I didn't do my best, I could do better next time." So instead of beating themselves up and saying, "I did a terrible job, I can't believe this." This was terrible, they take it in stride because they've got that perfectly imperfect mindset to say, "Alright, it wasn't the best, but I can do better." So that's a lot less negative than I know we can be on ourselves sometimes and they continue with that determination.
So, it wasn’t the way, I wanted it to be. It maybe wasn't my best but I'm on the road to figuring it out. And I'm going to keep going, so that's what I mean about less negative self-talk, more self-determination. The three key things that these rebels possess when they have a perfectly imperfect mindset. So again, its mistakes are opportunities, number one. Number two, they embrace feedback from others. And number three, they have less negative self-talk and more self-determination on their journey. So, my question for all of you, is really simple. Of those three ingredients that I just mentioned, what's one that you could try on, as you're figuring out your reinvention, you're figuring out this journey. You're like, "I'm going to be a reinvention rebel." Which of those could you focus on in the next week or two? Which is one that you could play with and try on for size? Is it that you're like, "Oh, mistakes, okay, I messed that up." But I see learning this, is it getting feedback from others, and being open to that feedback. Not having to be defensive about it, but seeing feedback as a gift, and that this person is trying to help propel you forward in your reinvention journey. Or is it that you're going to start talking to yourself a little differently, less of that negative self-talk and more reminding yourself that, "You've got this, that you can do this." That whatever happened was helping you move forward. Those are all perfectly imperfect action ideas. So, I want you to think about one that resonates with you. That you can begin to put into practice. And let's see what happens when we do over the next week or two. This idea is that we can over time build these skills, we can refine them, we can lean more into perfectly imperfect action, we can gain more confidence as we do all parts of that Reinvention Rebel journey.
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I'm looking forward to next week when I have an amazing interview with Stephanie Schwartz. You're going to love her reinvention story. She is a retired professor who has made her part-time passion when she was working her full-time passion and is pursuing a full-time acting career at 85, 85 people, 85 okay, eight, five. That is no joke and she is amazing. She is fierce. She's fabulous. She is full of this idea of perfectly imperfect action to support her dreams and I cannot wait to share this conversation with you. So, stay tuned for that. And just remember that if you are thinking, "Ah, I'd like to get started on my reinvention rebel journey, I'm not sure how,” I'm going to encourage you to lean into my quick seven-minute audio that you can download. It's called five questions to spark your curiosity and inspire your Reinvention Rebel's journey. It will help you start thinking a little bit about some questions to ask yourself to get going because half the battle is getting started. But I know you can do it. Until next time, keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.
Hey, rebels before we go, let me ask you a question. Is there a career pivot on your horizon? Are you interested in changing jobs, return to the workforce, starting a business or a side hustle? I'm asking because my friends Dana and Wendy of Camp Reinvention are hosting a free webinar on October 18th and 20th that I hope you'll attend with me because it's going to be awesome. We're going to be talking about how to make a professional pivot when you're over 50. And you're going to learn how to avoid the number one career pivot pitfall. Three ways to make your age and asset which seriously we all need to figure out how we can do that and a proven process to get into action quickly. It's going to be awesome and did I mention it's free, totally free. I hope you can join me. Details are in the show notes.
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