EudoraNews.com

In a recent radio interview concerning a metropolitan figure who is experiencing difficult times after a career of success, the speaker spoke of the need for the figure to "re-invent" himself. It is something, the speaker said, we all need to do two or three times in our careers.

Re-invention has always been an American trait. Freed from the rigid systems of Europe, class wasn't a final limit for individuals, and the frontier offered many of our ancestors a fresh start.

We still live in a highly mobile society, and Americans change careers on average twice as adults. Even those who remain with the same career path could see it changed so radically through technology or other circumstances.

This is the time of annual re-invention. You can read many experts questioning the value of New Year's resolutions. The criticisms seem to be that resolutions are merely pie-in-the-sky promises we make to ourselves without preparation or real commitment and are, therefore, bound to fail.

Short of wholesale re-invention, there are few of us who couldn't use improvement or an occasional commitment to renewal. The new year seems a good time to attempt change. As with birthdays, there's a sense of transition and possibility. The new calendars on our walls and desks are clean and empty - blank slates we can fill as we will.

Resolutions are at bottom an exercise in self-awareness. And failure is surely better than resistance to change and blindness to or tolerance of bad habits.

So we encourage the annual pledges to change and improvement. Those vows consistent with necessity and our true selves have good odds of success.

If not, there's always next year.

Comments