Reinventing Yourself?

in psychology •  7 years ago  (edited)

"WHO ARE YOU?" - The Caterpillar to Alice...

Reinvention is a funny word right? I mean, by it's very definition it's "un-invent" something then "invent it" again!

This term has gained more popularity over the past decade. The need, the want, to be somebody else. To change the way people look at us.

Who doesn't want to be more exciting? Interesting? Smarter? Cooler? Attractive?

In a world of Facebooks and Instagrams and Tinders, being "ordinary" means you are losing!... Or, so we tell ourselves secretly anyway.

No one is immune this. Even if we don't say it out loud, we know down deep we want others to see us a certain way!

But how do you "re-invent" what you've already invented over the course of your life?

Physical Change?

This is easy. Anyone can change the way they appear. And on the surface, there's nothing wrong with "mixing things up."

New clothes. A new hair cut. Tattoos. Piercings. Unique facial hair choice.

A change in your appearance can be a fun thing that makes you feel a little more daring. A little more outspoken. More Attractive.

I've played with my "look" for years (sorta). Back in high school, I was completely on the "J-Lo train" for a short time. And I had the look down to even some of the clothes she wore in her videos. Thank god that didn't last long, but it was fun to experiment with different looks.

And if you are a celebrity, you have the means and resources to make as many changes to your appearance as you please. Which is why so many of them look drastically different every time you see them!

kylie-jenner-transformation-1476874874-article-0.jpg

But when you see the extremes of some changes, it's a psychological warning sign that there is a problem.

I'm not here to condemn plastic surgery or augmentations. I think its shitty to do that to people who just want to feel better about themselves.

What I am saying though is, when people CHOOSE to continue to go under the knife repeatedly, even against a doctors order, then you have an issue! This goes beyond reinvention, and becomes more of a cry for help.

Changing your look is just a window dressing. Cause at the end of the day, you are still you regardless of your make-over. And ultimately, isn't true change!

Mental Evolution

Reinvention starts and ends with you deciding "why" you want to be, instead of "who" you want to be! Why is it important for you to change who you are? What's so wrong with you that you need to be something different.

THIS IS NOT ME JUDGING AT ALL!

It's a question I've asked myself for over 30 years now. But it wasn't till I started asking myself "why?"

Is it because:

  • You want to impress a certain person or people?
  • You think it will make you more marketable and rich?
  • You believe your life will suddenly not suck anymore?

I asked myself these question MANY times during my life.

And eventually I realized it wasn't about being a "different me" it was just about FINDING the "real me!"

Conclusion

Maybe you are still trying to find who you really are. And it's easy to hear buzzwords like "reinvention" or "new you" and think, "hey, I need to do that!"

But maybe, just maybe, you don't need to reinvent yourself, you just need to finally INVENT yourself! Find out who you really are and BE that person!

Hope this was helpful my lovelies! If you thought this was cool or somewhat interesting, would so appreciate and upvote and/or resteem!

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

I feel like you have addressed this issue with the utmost care.

If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask… for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.

Albert Einstein
You have postulated the correct question to; enable the most authentic version of oneself to emerge from under the psychological conditioning we have received from our current socially constructed reality.

But in daily routine most decisions have to be held in a second, so that is why we or I made most of my mistakes

Men and women play with their looks for many reasons. I enjoyed your post because it tackled them from many angles. cars, houses, animals, etc... all play a role in those changes. I am currently looking to change my looks through body building. @cleverbot do you think I will complete my goal for my appearance?

Ok. Can you tell me something?

I really love your posts @suicidalviral, they are all so thought provoking and real. Good advice, it's whats on the inside that makes us who we are and when we listen and act on our soul's intentions life takes on new meaning. #theunmentionables

Unfortunately it takes a while sometimes to learn that! Happy you dug it!

I opine that a very rudimental trait common to humans is change. We need to morph for several reasons; impressions, boredom, acceptance, value etc. hence, why I consider "who are you"? A timeless rhetoric.
I like your name. :)

Nailed it with asking 'WHY'! So important. It's definitely a long and often exciting discovery process to find/invent our true calling. I do believe that we each came to this earth with a purpose, and we have to do the digging to remember what that is, and then lean into it.

Well thank you kind sir!

Awesome post. I think most of us go through phases and then one day... it all clicks together. And, yes, it usually comes with experience, age and probably a wrinkle or two.

Or Five! lol. Glad you liked it!

I always try new things, new hair color, new clothes, shoes, bags, the way I carry my hair and make up as well. It's not about who I really am, i do this because I feel like whenever I experiment with my looks, I feel fresh, my mood changes, I am happy

And that's cool. I do the same thing. It's like a fresh start.

Haha yess, and a light mood. So in love with that kind of feeling <3

Good write up. Augmenting our appearance for social acceptance and the deep need to be accepted has deep links in our evolutionary history as an absence of acceptance was more a less a death sentence for around 180,000 thousand years of our history. It's called an evolutionary stable model kinda similar to dogs in a pack configuration or cattle in a herd configuration. If we can't monkey see monkey do it causes an actual shift in our neurochemistry changing the way we see the world around us, triggering depressive states, or states of high anxiety. The Solomon Ash experiment actually confirmed that crowd conformity and links to self perception actually change the way we see reality. Thanks for the awesome article and will up vote and follow. Many blessings. :)

I might be new on steemit, but I think I've read another fascinating article today. This has a lot in relation to my post (my first and only post) earlier today advocating self-value and power of right information and its application.
You have spurred my interest in your posts and I celebrate you for that.
Cheers!

Throughout my life I’ve went through many re-inventions because I wanted to have some of the qualities that the people I admired had. I think as human beings we are blessed with the flexibility to be, do and have whatever we want but if it’s that easy then why arn’t we all beautiful, funny, joyful, rich...... ? The physical reinvention is easier to do, and yes a bit of money makes the process easier and quicker but the reinvention of our mind and our personalities is a bit harder because we are creatures of habit, if you don’t set your intention to do the new behaviour you want then you’ll fall back to the way you are very soon because that feels more natural and it’s habitual.
Anyhow, this subject can be open up for further discussion so I’ll write a post about this and we can discuss some more. In the meantime, thank you for sharing, great article, I really enjoyed it😀😀

I look forward to reading it! Happy you liked the post!

This was an amazing post. I loved it. Thank you

Hmm, this is a thought proving article. Do we change our styles, appearance for ourselves or the other people.

Great stuff. Every month, I try to find one new habit or pattern that I've created and then break it. I feel like people get used to falling in line with what they know and don't push themselves to try something a new way, or from a new perspective.

I really loved it when you said: "Reinvention starts and ends with you deciding "why" you want to be, instead of "who" you want to be!"
That resonates with me... I think that we just keep experimenting with living life in many different ways and then one day we realize that one of our experiments is working... we like what we see and feel and others do too... then we can develop that version of ourselves with a lot of flirtatious and fun energy for a long time... spreading that kind of love... whatever it might be... thanks...

Yes, find out who you are. . Ask oneself, Who am I? And see if there is an answer. . Food to ponder.
IME, for the last 7 years i have practiced Self Inquiry meditation and it has shifted perspective dramatically into what is real and what reality actually is. .

we must be comfortable in our own skin. Comfortable with our uniqueness just like the myriad of unique fingertips. No one is ever the same and this is what make things fun! Thanks for posting!

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Awesome! You change for the better, I am glad to read more posts like this, because it's a want to change in the future! Thanks for sharing dear @suicudalviral

Glad you liked it!

This post has received a 3.13 % upvote from @drotto thanks to: @banjo.

That's quite an interesting approach you took there. Often times we are concerned about how people see us instead of how we see ourselves. This is a self image issue, leading to a psychological issue. However, I do think that others do use the term in a positive way, meaning: improving themselves, getting better at doing certain things, not procrastinating, etc. Of course to others it means being a completely different person inside and/or outside.

"be the change y ou want to see" some wiser man

Completely agree!

Nice post. Follow me back. Thanks

amazing post @suicidalviral

Thank you hun!

the Best

Thank you kind sir!

Congratulations @suicidalviral! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

@sucidalviral nice work you deserve follow me for more

Very Excellent! Upvoted and followed! :-)
Thanks for sharing! :-)

Thank so much!

You're welcome. :-)

Wishing you smiles and sunshine! :-)

Fun Read!!! Love the imagery and pics too!!

I am always reinventing myself. We are all continually evolving 24 hours and 86400 seconds each day.

Avatar for discord 2.png

Wishing you continued success!!!

🎀 @theprettysoul 🎀

This Basically Has Alot To Do With The Lie That We Live In, The Obvious Manipulation Of Our Financial System And Alot Of Other Stuff And The Fact That There Is No More Privacy Makes It Even Worse But I Think That Someone Can Improve Him/Her Self Even Changing The Little Things Can Always Help And Will Eventually Achieve A Happier You ! BTW I Like Your Pic And I Find You Very Attractive And I Hope You're Not Really Considering Suicide Because I Believe Life Can Be Hard But You Won't Notice That When You Look At Things Positively :)

Wow truly amazing post, I followed you and gave you my 100% upvote on several of your post 👍👍keep up the good work...@maxani

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Is there even a need to invent yourself or find yourself? Why not just be yourself. But I guess you may not be able to be your self because of the conditioning you have had by your past which has formed layers upon layers in you that ends up obscuring who you are so that who you are does not show forth. And what do you do? You start looking for yourself. In looking for yourself you make another mistake because you do not really go inwards but look for yourself in external things - clothes, phones, men, women, looks, houses, and the likes. It is impossible for you to find yourself in external things and as a result of this you end up losing yourself to external things. So the clothe that gave you pleasure the day you bought it now gives you less pleasure or even brings displeasure.
Stop looking for yourself. Do not try to be this or that. Just be.

Hello please follow me and vote @bilqis07

Upvoted & followed! I am new to the Steemit community & I would very much like for you to check out my "introduce myself" post. Here is a link: https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@pizzagainz/let-me-introduce-myself

This was cool, cool pic makes this article more believable !

Fresh