A PUBLICATION OF THE WOMEN’S BOOK | SPRING 2010

SNEAK PEEK ISSUEThe Women’s Book’s 2010-2011 Guest Editor, profiles and special interest topics

Valerie Jarrett WhItE hoUSE SENIor AdVISoron “balancing it all” and her hopes for young women

CrAzy CollECtIoNShot glass memorabilia

ColumBuS arEa WomEnshare their views, concerns and goals on healthcare

Hot Spot: martini Park

Collaborationbenefiting

women & girls

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The road to reinvention is paved with our personal stories. How do women navigate their reinvention in today’s world? If there is

anything positive that has come out of the financial crisis we’ve all experienced over the last two years, it’s the fact that all of us, to some extent, have had to consider reinventing ourselves. As we begin to write our own reinvention story we ask ourselves four key questions: “Who Am I?” “What Do I Want?” “Where Am I Going?” “How Do I Get There?”

Reinvention requires individual work and life resiliency because the road to reinvention is a bumpy ride. So fasten your seatbelts and begin your reinvention story by first identifying your unique strengths. There are two questions that can guide us at this point:

What strengths do we need to draw upon to embrace the change and transition associated with reinvention?

How do we adapt those strengths to meet the needs and unique challenges along the way?

We can best identify our strengths by reflecting on and celebrating the positive experiences that have defined our personal story. These success stories are the special accomplishments and achievements of our career and personal life. They are reinvention keys because they activate a spirit of empowerment and provide us with the language for our next chapter.

As we women reinvent, we need to pay extra attention to the transition chapter. In order to create what you want, you need the self awareness and willingness to transform into who you want to be by navigating reinvention with your evolving story.

Laura Butler is the Vice President of Coaching & Program Development for WorkLife Performance Consulting. She is a personal performance and life fulfillment specialist with experience in health care, educational enrichment, customer service and individual coaching. To learn more about Laura and her work visit www.worklifeforwomen.com.

RE InventionYour Story & Your Future By Laura Butler

So how do we begin writing our reinvention stories?

1. Identify and adapt your personal strengths by reflecting on a work scenario, a learning achievement or an outside work project that was successful.

2. Accelerate the inner transition that accompanies this reinvention. Personalize the change by identifying what is ending and acknowledge the confusion of feelings that attend change of any kind.

3. Identify the opportunities that await you on the other side of the change and build a clear strategy to get there.

4. Align your goals and development with a clear vision of the future you want to create. Finally, clearly articulate the vision and begin the reinvention story.