I’ve been thinking a lot about Remaking Yourself lately, which is going to be the subject of my new weekly radio program starting September 3 from 8-9 a.m. PST on HealthyLife.net Radio.
We are in a time of such major transformation that everything has to change. Some have compared this to the information revolution of two decades ago and to the industrial revolution of last century. Nothing will ever be the same again.
It is an amazing time in which to live. And today the economy is in turmoil because of all these changes. It’s not just a recession, but a time of total transformation. And as technology changes, so does society. And jobs that are being outsourced, simply aren’t going to come back. New jobs, new businesses are springing up all the time.
What all this means is you have to change, too, and think of different ways of changing. In fact, consider several scenarios, so you have different possibilities, like having a Plan A, B, C, D, and even more. This way you have a repertoire of alternatives, so you are prepared no matter what changes occur.
Sure, any change can be a little scary. It takes you out of your comfort zone, what you’re used to. But you have to be able to push through those fears to embrace the new. Otherwise, if you’re not able to move ahead, you’re likely to be left behind, as we move forward into this uncertain new world. It’s a little like taking an escalator of change into the future – you don’t know exactly where it is going or what floor you are going to get off on. But you have to get onto that escalator, so you can change successfully.
I began thinking about this need to change and remake oneself, when I encountered a major change in my own life. About a week before my recent book came out: WANT IT, SEE IT, GET IT!, my publisher of 8 years and 8 books fired half of the editors and marketing staff.
Why? Because of changes in the publishing industry, because people were reading and buying less books. And more and more people were getting their information from the Internet or e-books. Plus more and more, publishing, like life in general, was being driven by big celebrities and big newsworthy events like the latest scandal. So now there is less interest in books by everyday writers unless they are household names.
Before that event, I had been seeing the growing numbers of people out of work, the rise of pink slip parties, of groups like the Unemployed of Santa Monica. But at first I just felt these developments meant I had a growing pool of people I could hire to work for me at much lower wages than I would normally have to pay.
So for awhile I did staff up with two new employees to pitch my books to publishers and to build my presence on the growing new social media – LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But then gradually I began to realize that this change meant I had to change, too, because publishers weren’t snapping up my ideas for new books like before. That’s because the industry that I had focused on for three decades was in a terminal slow-down, like newspapers, and things would never be the same. So what if I had published over 50 books? That was yesterday. I had to start thinking of how to change for a new tomorrow.
And it was hard. The decline of publishing and the firings of these editors was like experiencing a death in the family. So I went through a period of mourning and grieving for a few weeks, feeling a little depressed as I came to terms with letting go. I also began to feel a little like I did as a teenager, asking those kind of questions which teenagers do – What am I going to do with my life now?
Well, in a way, this upheaval is what’s happening to all of us now. We are experiencing the death of the world as we know it, as a new world struggles to be born. Meanwhile, the world is in the turmoil that we read or hear about in the news everyday – wars in the Middle East, huge waves of immigration, terrorist attacks, job losses, company bankruptcies, and so on. And all the celebrity news, especially Michael Jackson’s death, is like a welcome distraction from all these unnerving changing events.
However, think of all this turmoil as a struggle for a new rebirth that will be even more glorious once the transformation is completed. And think about how you can remake yourself for this coming tomorrow.
You simply have to change and push through any fears you have to do so. Otherwise, you might find yourself like a woman I met recently who had lost her job doing special sales for a newspaper. Her job had been to set up special promotional events at schools and universities to promote newspapers sales. She had avoided the first two waves of layoffs, but finally, about 6 months ago, the scythe of job death had hit her. When I asked her what she was doing now, she said she was still looking for another job, but hadn’t found anything yet.
So what about using her skills to start her own company? What about doing part-time work for small companies? But her answer was no, no. No matter what my suggestion was, her answer was the same. She liked working in a large corporate environment. She didn’t want to do anything else. In short, she was stuck in denial, stuck in hoping for the return of a past that would never come back. So she’s still looking for a job that no longer exists.
In short, the world is rapidly changing and remaking itself. So you have to do so, too.
* * * * * * *
Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is the author of over 50 books and a seminar and workshop leader, specializing in work relationships and professional and personal development. Her latest books include Want It, See It, Get It and Enjoy! 101 Little Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Everyday, both from AMACOM. Her Website is at http://www.ginigrahamscott.com. Her Changemakers Radio Website is at http://www.changemakersradio.com.
Comments are closed.