The following is a guest post written by Bri Seeley, Author of Permission to Leap: The Six-Phase Journey to Bringing Your Vision to Life. I’m about halfway through the book myself and it’s really worth taking the time to read! Thanks, Bri!
Permission to Leap
Three years ago I lived a very different life. After receiving both a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Diploma in Fashion Design, I was convinced it was my destiny to be a Fashion Designer. I had begun my own label and over a course of eight years had grown it so much, I was finding myself on stage at Los Angeles Fashion Week, the pages of Women’s Wear Daily (WWD), the cover of Apparel News and dressing the likes of Toni Braxton.
Everything my ego knew to be true about myself was wrapped up in this identify of “Fashion Designer.”
Until one Saturday in March when I ventured into a friend’s home for a meditation. It was during this meditation I received the message, “What are you doing? Seriously, stop. Fashion isn’t it. You need to close your brand.”
To be fair, I’d known this for a while. But I hadn’t allowed myself to go there or even begin to conceptualize what it meant to be a human that wasn’t a Fashion Designer. This message gave me permission to let go and move on. Four days later I announced that my brand was closed effective immediately and I was spun into full reinvention mode.
Here are my top 3 tips for reinventing yourself:
- Do the inner work – Reinvention isn’t an external transformation, it’s an internal one. If you truly want to come out on the other side as a better version of yourself, you have to apply the time, attention and effort to change your beliefs, thoughts and actions.The nine months following my brand closure were difficult. Each day was filled with realizations about my identity as I shed the title of ‘Fashion Designer’ and dove into the discomfort of growing into a new version of myself. I cried more tears, had more breakdowns and wiped my inner slate clean day after day. I was committed to my reinvention, which meant aligning my beliefs, shifting my thought patterns and developing the habits that I needed to support my success.Two ways to begin this process include: 1. Identifying who you have been in the past, then look at who you want to be in the future and start to shift your present-self to be more aligned with your future-self. And 2. Outline your belief systems, identify what no longer fits with where you’re headed and create new ones.
- Commit – Sitting on the fence waffling back and forth between reinventing yourself and not reinventing yourself creates stagnation. Only through commitment will your reinvention take place and have the momentum to create the change you’re looking for.This was the major reason I was able to make my transition so quickly and relatively seamless. I didn’t hold on to what had been. I was able to immediately commit fully to my new path, even though I had no idea what it looked like or who I would be on the other side. I trusted the guidance I received and took action on it.Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, cited slow decision making as the #13 reason for failure. People who follow their intuition and trust in the next steps (without requiring proof!) are infinitely more successful with their reinvention than the ones who sit hemming and hawing over the decision.
- Take the Leap – Leaping into this reinvention is not a one time act, it’s a daily application of taking inspired action. Spend a few minutes each morning receiving clarity about which two to three steps you should focus on that day.
One of my favorite questions to ask people is: How do you eat an elephant? The answer: one bite at a time.
Leaping into reinvention is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes consistent, daily application of your intentions and daily connection with your vision. I highly recommend developing a daily practice for yourself to set yourself up for success in this area because if you’re not making it a priority and turning it into a habit, everything else will always come first.
Over time, your inner transformation, commitment and daily inspired action will have created so many small shifts, you’ll look at the woman staring back at you in the mirror and not recognize her. Will you give yourself permission to leap into your reinvention today?
Bri Seeley is an inspirational woman who supports women around the world to bring their visions to life.
Bri is motivated by a deeply-held belief that every woman deserves to live a life that inspires her, and her work reflects this deep remembering of the possibility – nay, inevitability – that our desires hold. Through her book, podcast, and 6-month training, Permission to Leap will guide you through the process of leaping from the day you commit to the day you land softly on the other side.
A catalyst, speaker, and author, she is a regular contributor for The Huffington Post and Influencive and is known by many for her tell-it-like-it-is, out-of-the-box guidance that creates massive and epic changes in every woman she encounters.
Bri has been featured on NBC’s The TODAY Show, Forbes, Inc, Medium, PBS, and Free Enterprise. Bri received the Outstanding Small Business award from the Los Angeles Mayor’s office and the Small Business Development Center in 2016.
