The Reinvention Project

Day 43: Week seven plan

This week I'm taking a cruise to Mexico with my daughters. How this is like the Six of Swords Tarot card, showing a passage to a new life.

Day 42: Neverending list of worries

Why I keep a neverending list of worries, a neverending shopping list, and a neverending list of to dos.

Day 41: Hurrying through

Hurrying through my transition to get to a place of peace and perfection that does not exist

Day 40: Artist Betye Saar on how to make a living

Artist Betye Saar, age 97, still loves making art. Through her life, she creatively found ways to make money as a creative person.

Day 39: Finding confidence for a chosen path

Becoming who I want to be by making a hard choice. Building self-efficacy to succeed with that choice.

Day 38: Neutral zone tactics

How to make the most of the time between a beginning and an ending, from William Bridges' classic book Transitions.

Day 37: An antidote to money anxiety

How self-efficacy around making and managing money might reduce my feelings of money anxiety

I’m undertaking a 365-day reinvention project, and blogging here daily to track my progress. On Sundays, I plan for the week ahead, outlining a theme and tentatively identifying each post I’ll write. If I were undertaking a hero's journey a la Joseph Campbell, last week was when I crossed the first threshold. I finally letContinue reading "Day 36: Week six plan"

Day 35: Burner to do list

Using a one-page paper to do list to ensure you focus on your most important projects.

Day 34: Wicked and stupid jest

The neutral zone of transition can feel like life is playing a wicked and stupid jest upon you.

Day 33: Annie Duke on how not quitting slows your progress

If you stick to a losing path, you are slowing your progress.

Day 31: Honoring your purpose

Building confidence and a sense of purpose through action aligned with who you are

Day 30: Paying a 1% advisory fee

For many people, it makes sense to pay a wealth manager a percent of assets under management in order to achieve discipline, not to choose a portfolio allocation

Day 29: Week five plan

In week five, a plan is coalescing in my mind

Day 28: Quick mindfulness practice

A five-minute meditation to practice mindfulness

Day 27: Wretchedly unfair

The story of our foster dog Cece, diagnosed with bone cancer after going through a difficult and unnecessary surgery.

Day 26: Giorgio Armani on staying relevant

How to stay relevant in tech; advice from the Tarot and Giorgio Armani

Day 25: Habits for mental wellbeing

Daily habits that support moment-by-moment wellbeing

Day 24: At a crossroads

Standing at a career crossroads, I ask myself should I stay in tech even though it's toxic to women?

Day 23: Feeling satisfied via practices not goals

How to cultivate not just satisfaction but also satiability.

Day 22: Week four plan

For the fourth week of my reinvention project, I'm working on the inner me rather than the outer

Day 21: Bad roommate practice

By separating yourself from your thoughts, you can feel more peaceful and less anxious. A practice for cognitive defusion.

Day 20: Happy birthday! 🎂

On my 56th birthday, I reflect on what's working and what's not.

Day 19: Brooke Castillo on shame resilience

One of the most difficult emotions to handle is shame. Instead of avoiding it, how about trying to learn to live with it?

Day 17: Blueprint for copywriting

Five questions to ask yourself when you're writing web copy--or defining your selling prop before you're ready to write web copy.

Day 16: Spending money on advertising

Instead of spending money on experiences or things, and instead of saving it all for retirement, I'm going to spend on building my business.

Day 15: Week three plan

For week three of my reinvention project, I'm going to take action. I'm going to see if I can use advertising to get people to download a worksheet, in exchange for signing up for email updates.

Day 14: What’s wretched / what’s glorious practice

As a better alternative to gratitude journaling, I like to inventory what's glorious and wretched in my life. This helps cultivate both appreciation and acceptance.

Day 13: Mind the gap

I don't want to settle for who I am. But I have doubts about whether I can become who I'd like to be.

Day 12: Joan Collins on resilience and patience

Joan Collins, still working in show business at age 90, shares her thoughts on success.

Day 11: Should I quit data science?

Should I quit data science because I'm tired of it? Does that mean I can never work in it again?

Day 10: All will never be well (and that’s ok)

I'm undertaking a 365-day reinvention project, and blogging here daily to track my progress. On Tuesdays, I share ideas from books I've enjoyed. Want to follow the reinvention project? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter. While ostensibly this reinvention project is aimed at a career shift, my career and personal lives intertwine. Changes in one meanContinue reading "Day 10: All will never be well (and that’s ok)"

Day 9: Planning for non-retirement

Retirement doesn't appeal to me. Working into my 90s does.

Day 8: Week two plan

A quick reflection on week one. Feeling excited about moving on to a new stage of life, involving both career and personal reinvention.

Day 7: One should/five coulds practice

This practice is inspired by the Optionality open thread Shedding your "Shoulds" at Work. We all have certain rules we set for ourselves about our work lives. My most recent one was, "I should work full-time for the next five years in a data science director role in order to save up enough money toContinue reading "Day 7: One should/five coulds practice"