inertia. A, noun. 1, inactiveness, inactivity, inertia. a disposition to remain inactive or inert.

It has been one of those weeks. A new challenge has presented itself every day and some time mid-week I got lost in my mind. Haven’t been here for several days. At any rate the only way to reinvent is to keep moving forward. I ran across the word inertia today and decided it was a perfect word for me to describe my mind-set this week. I allowed things to become overwhelming and once that took place I was as I am fond of saying STUCK IN STUPID.

Worrying, panicking, hiding under the bed and other solutions of this type don’t solve  problems. Inertia however is sometimes what happens when we try to protect ourselves from harsh realities. No matter what my common sense and spiritual belief tells me, some days I just lose the battle and wallow in a bit of self-pity. This week really brought home the saying that “No news is good news”

Yesterday I attended a 4^th Birthday party for the child of a friend.  A 30 some mile drive, a chair in her backyard and a group of kids playing in the blow-up bounce and slide house did wonders for me. Some good adult conversation and wonderful food and drink and I was on the road to recovery. Maybe I take myself too seriously. Maybe we all do at times.

Down with Inertia! Let’s put one foot in front of the other and see where it leads tomorrow!

So yesterday we began exploring the comfort zone and today we are going to make a small change that takes us out of that zone. I love to talk (the reason that blogging is so much fun for me). I have never felt uncomfortable speaking to groups of people. Yet if I am asked to make a cold call (someone I don’t know) I am petrified. I would rather do most anything than talk to a stranger.

Today I am going to call a real estate lead that I don’t know. I intend to have a meaningful conversation and hopefully the party I am calling won’t know. What are you going to do today? Please let me know.

The following is the definition of Comfort Zone from Wikipedia:

The comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.^[1] The comfort zone refers to the set of environments and behaviours with which somebody is comfortable, without creating a sense of risk. A person’s personality can be described by his or her comfort zones. Highly successful persons may routinely step outside their comfort zones, to accomplish what they wish. A comfort zone is a type of mental conditioning that causes a person to create and operate mental boundaries. Such boundaries create an unfounded sense of security. Like inertia, a person who has established a comfort zone in a particular axis of his or her life, will tend to stay within that zone without stepping outside of it. To step outside a person’s comfort zone, they must experiment with new and different behaviours, and then experience the new and different responses that then occur within their environment.

Several things about this definition struck me as interesting. “A level of performance without a sense of risk. This describes lots of us in our every day lives. We don’t want to do anything that will upset the status quo. We may be unhappy or at least unchallenged but stepping off that path brings all kinds of reactions that we are not ready to deal with.

Most of us have a standard trip to and from work. Whether by public transportation, our own vehicle or by foot, we usually travel the same way each day. Boredom is balanced against the sense of the familiar. We know those landmarks, we see the same people, have the route timed or would rather not have to think on our commute.There is no sense of risk and that is just fine for most of us.

A comfort zone is a type of mental conditioning which allows us to set mental boundaries which give us a false sense of comfort. If we think and act the same way, we believe that we have control over some aspect of our lives.

In today’s world this may be more important than in our past. We have so many things that are out of our control. The economy has caused many of us to lose investments, jobs, homes and certainly a sense of control. Engaging in the familiar somehow makes things better. But today you have to ask yourself is this what is best for me now?

This week let’s begin our reinvention with a step outside of our comfort zone. Tomorrow let’s alter our daily commute. It can be a small step around one block and back to the normal route, a different road, a later bus, earlier train. I’m with you a different route to work tomorrow.

“… Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten”     from “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield

My friend Fred Patrick sent me the lyrics to this song  by Natasha Bedingfield. You can hear the entire song on You Tube. I thought this passage was reminiscent of what we are trying to do here in beginning our journey of transformation. If we look at our lives as a book still unwritten or at least unfinished we can begin each day with a renewed sense of purpose.

I received a comment yesterday from someone else who blogs on Word Press. I visited her blog and found more inspiration for my bucket list endeavour and I bet some of you will feel the same. The address to her blog is http://mslistologist.com. She began with her bucket list but has since created multiple lists of things to do. Every day I give thought to what I can do on my journey of reinvention and though I began talking about reinvention of the American worker I realize that we have to work on all aspects of our personality in order to move forward and prosper.

I will continue to find things to add value to this site and hopefully provide some of us with the incentive we need to move forward. Let me know what you think. Suggestions always welcome.

Perhaps this exercise is so difficult because we describe it in terms of things to do before you die. Not most people’s favorite subject. So maybe we should describe it as things we want to do to live to the fullest. At any rate I have begun my list and I will refine it as time goes on. Here’s what I have so far:

Start an Arts Non-Profit

Start a Food Business with my Daughter-in-Law

Visit Egypt

Reach My Goal Weight

Become a Weight Watchers Lecturer

Make This Blog Successful

Lecture before Thousands

Visit the South Pacific

Sell a million dollar home (or two!)

Snorkel in Belize

Can I hear from some of you out there. What’s on your list.

I suggested the other day that everyone write a “bucket list” . My intention was to have us all look at what we say that we want and/or desire and  decide if any of the items on the list could be  the basis of our next career. What I found personally was that I couldn’t think of many things that I wanted to do that seemed realistic.

Perhaps realistic is the operative word. I decided to explore the web and found a great blog by a woman named Celestine Chua. It’s called the Personal Excellence Blog and one area is devoted to the creation of a bucket list and how it can be used. Here is the address http://celestinechua.com/blog/my-bucket-list.  Perhaps it can be the inspiration necessary to create your list.

“Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.”

The above quote comes from the promo for the movie the Bucket List. If you have seen the movie you know that Jack Nicholson invites Morgan Freeman to accompany him on a trip to fulfill his bucket list.

If you don’t know what a bucket list is, it is a list of all the things that you want to accomplish before you die. Until I saw the movie I had never heard the term nor had I ever thought of creating such a list. In the movie Jack Nicholson’s character has the financial ability to indulge in everything he wants to carry out. Nice premise, cute movie which left me thinking about things that I want to do. I haven’t made a bucket list but perhaps this is the time.

If we think of things that we would like to experience or do maybe we can begin to develop a plan for our reinvention.

So let’s start today. Create a list and in the coming days we will see what we can learn from that list.

In June of 2009 Chao Mu-he, 96 received a Masters in Philosophy from Nanhua University in Taiwan. He said that he began the graduate program after the hospital where he volunteered felt he was too old to continue. He said that he was bored and didn’t really have a hobby. A friends’ son was reluctant to go back to school and Chao suggested that they enroll and study together. The article I read shows Mr. Chao proudly wearing his cap and gown at his graduation.

The messages that many of us have received over the years is that when we reach “retirement” age we should be prepared to sit on the porch, sip iced tea, rub the dog’s head and wait for the mailman to deliver our retirement checks.

Several things are wrong with this picture:

• There is no real retirement age. Many people have put in the required time at a job for a pension by the time they are in their early to mid fifties. Given our current state of health care the assumption is that in your fifties you are still physically capable of working if desired.

• People in their sixties and beyond are also better able to continue contributing to society and therefore they may not be ready to leave the work force either.

• The economy dictates that people continue to work to pay higher property taxes and to support the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

• Boredom is a terrible thing! It is very hard for many people just to sit on the porch.

• There is science to back up the fact that if you don’t use the brain over time we lose some of our abilities. So the more active we keep our minds the better!

It’s not too late for change. Let’s go for it!

My friend Harold read my blog one day and his comment was “get right to the point with me.”  So okay what is the point?

I started out to bolster my desire to reinvent myself. I wanted to think out loud and I hoped that some of you out there wanted to do the same thing. I am a people person and I believe that I can learn something from everyone that I meet. I also find that saying it or in this case writing it helps me make concrete what rumbles around in my head most of the time.

I spent some time yesterday looking at blogs devoted to “reinventing” ourselves and found that most of them either looked at reinvention from a spiritual/religious standpoint or wanted to sell you a product that would help you make the necessary changes. I found some of these sites interesting and I certainly believe in the spiritual and religious but that is not what I am trying to do. I don’t want to reinvent you. I want to reinvent me. I believe that we can help each other.

I don’t have the formula for you. What I do have is a vehicle where you can share stories about reinvention, offers the seed of change and provides a safe and comfortable place for everyone to explore the more that they can be.

So there it is Harold. This may not be the blog for everyone but I know that some of you out there can benefit from it. Let me know what you think.

I have not posted for several days and had a difficult time deciding what next. I want to keep this going but that depends on a variety of things including interesting content. I need help from those of you out there reading. Perhaps you would like to email me and share your thoughts and or stories so that I may pass them on. . Please feel free to do so at http://www.knittingnedjmicreations@gmail.com.

So last Saturday I attended a get together hosted by a group of Cornell Alumni, class of 1974. I was the guest of my college roommate Renee who was a part of that class. I was in the class of 1973. I know these folks and am always delighted to see them.  In the course of conversation with several people I was talking about my desire and need to reinvent myself. Unlike many of my friends, my need to reinvent is necessitated by my need to create income. I have to work to live and now I don’t see that changing. It’s okay it is what it is.

I was surprised and happy to know that lot’s of folks have and/or would like to reinvent themselves. I am learning that it is not an easy decision for anyone. Whether you just have a wish to do what you really like or like me you have to change to continue to survive the result seems to be the same. Change is difficult. Let’s begin to move forward.