How to Reinvent yourself and change your identity

Everyday and in every way society is constantly giving us new ways to look, act and be. What we thought was hip or cool is now deck. Many of us may say, "what's the purpose to all of this and why bother?"

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

 

Things You'll Need:

·         a notebook

·         a plan

·         a pencil

·         some cash

·         magazines/books/resources

·         a public library

·         a good cemetary

·         If you like my writing, buy my mystery novel, "Seven Murders In Sussex."

We all have scary bridges to cross in our futures, but we can't begin unless we start

STEP ONE

 

Step One: Determination. The very first step is to determine who you want to be. Think of yourself as your own protagonist in a fiction novel. What we need first to do is to determine what your ideal person does for a living. Unless you are independantly wealthy, you're going to need a livelihood. Does your ideal person work in a movie house? Or do you see your new image as one who is the head of surgery at the local Heart Clinic? This is a crucial decision. If you intend to reinvent yourself as a surgeon and at the present time you are working as a Frie chef at the local burger and brew, the mountain of the probability of you becoming this surgeon has become increasingly steep. But do not be discouraged, I had a friend at school who'd been a "d" student throughout his high school career, but he got himself into college and worked very very very hard to change who he had been and he is now the chief of staff surgeons at a mid-western hospital. It isn't easy, but it is possible, of course if you decide to become a surgeon, you should have the smarts to go with it.

Sometimes it may feel like we're stuck in the mud and can't get out.

STEP TWO

 

This world is a sea of opportunity. Seize it!

But, for intents and purposes, let's say that at present you are working as a secretary for a law firm. You wear cardigan sweaters and sensible shoes. Your idea of a night on the town is bingo with the girls/guys at the local grange hall. Let's say that you have decided to become a rock star. Start small. You obviously know what it takes to maintain your ticky tacky lifestyle. So find a job that pays you the equivalent in a field closer to what you want. Perhaps you could get a job as a secretary working at a music company. Then you would have exposure to that industry and could find the other ways to that place as well. The main thing is that you have enough money to get by on what you want or need to be.

Of course if you decided to become a street musician and leave your Executive Vice President position, that is do-able too.

The point is, decide who the new person is..what they do for a living.

STEP THREE

 

Decide where the person lives. Obviously if you want to go to the extreme, you may decide that the person lives on the East Coast as Opposed to the West Coast or vice versa. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you have a plan. You can begin looking at places online. You can go to a roommate service and find a month to month place to live and then work it out from there. Or go one further and actually move in with a rocker, if you're to become a rocker, or an anthropologist, if that is your desire.

STEP FOUR

 

how do you want others to perceive you? It's all in the clothes you wear.

Dress. This is could be the most fun. You can decide the way in which you want to dress. Is a new hair color in the making? Maybe go platinum blond from a mousy brunette, or perhaps red? Are there piercings involved?

STEP FIVE

 

Attitude. This is probably the most important part of reinvention, attitude. You have to begin to think like the person you are reinventing yourself into. If you want to be a mod/beatnik/hippie then start by reading Kerouac, or Ginsberg or any of the beatniks. If you want to be a fashion diva, then perhaps Edith Head is the way to go, or even Paris Hilton. The idea here is that you saturate your market. Learn everything that there is to possibly know about the you that you want to become.

STEP SIX

 

As for identity..it is a commonly known fact that you can change your name by using another name and writing it out and making it your own. You can also go to an attorney and have it changed that way, or you can marry, if you're female, or in most states even if you're male.

STEP SEVEN

As for credit...this one's tricky. Many people in the past used to change their identity by going to grave yards and finding the names of people who were about their age, but dead, and then assuming their identity and then applying for a social security card in their name and becoming them. This is illegal.

If you are changing you identity and state and the whole new person thing because you are in imminent danger, you can apply for a new social security card from the Social Security Office here in the U.S.A. and then go from there. They will, under exteme circumstances, help you in this regard.

That being said, the main idea is that you put all of your thoughts together, about who you want to be. There is no reason in this world that we live in that you should feel the need to be stuck in your present self. You can change.

STEP EIGHT

 

Make index cards and put them on the mirror of what the new you is, or thinks or does. If you roller blade, then do the research. Get into physical shape (doctor's help might be necessary in this one).

But be realistic with yourself. If you are seventy years old, no matter how much surgery your have or what color you die your hair, you will never look 18 again. And there's nothing worse than a seventy year old dude dressing like an 18 year old. But then again, if you're filthy rich, it's amazing what people out there in our bric a brac world won't tell you.

STEP NINE

 

It's easier if you start small. If you want to be an astronaut, start by maybe getting some books out of the library, or reading the autobiographies of astronauts. See where they live and how they live.

STEP TEN

But here is the biggest challenge going: find out who you truly are, deep down, if all the pre-conceived notions that maybe you were filled with during your youthful years in choir practice (just an illustration folks), and be that. As Shakespeare has so eloquently taught us, "to thine own self, be true."

 

the author

I think that for many of us, we've been living a lie put on us, these ideas that we have to be the good, fill in the blank, or the bad, fill in the blank...but all you ever have to do in this life is die and pay taxes.

I personally believe that you should develop yourself over time, through music, art, literature and culture, but that's my own belief. Afterall, in this crazy world, we have to find happiness where we can.

I wish you well world. Good luck. I hope you find out what you're looking for, be it as a multi-pierced rocking babe in some subversive rock cellar band in Eastern Europe, or as a staid cardigan clad librarian in the stack rooms of life. The choice is yours. It's your life, go live it!

Tips & Warnings

• So you feel ugly or unwanted. So you feel like maybe you should give up and just become the slothful slog you've always imagined yourself to be. Or maybe you are knee deep in student loans and have put on a few hundred extra pounds since college or since the day you threw those high school text books into the trash receptacle and took on that beauty  school career only to find yourself working at some dead end minimum wage job with your boyfriend Larry. But I'm here to tell you how you can change your image, identity and life.
• Remember, with change and re-invention can come great sacrifice. True change comes from within - inside out. Change how you think, and you will be able to change who your are.
• Take baby steps, remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. Start with little things, like changing how you get to work, or how you dress for week.
• Do it gradually if you can.
• If you must make a break - do it quick, and never never never look back.

If you like my writing, check out my newest mystery novel, "Seven Murders In Sussex."