Everyone (not just people who have been fired or fear they are about to be) reinvents themselves personally and professionally at some time or other…deliberately or inadvertently, strategically or impetuously. In fact, the author argues that professional reinvention is not only a good defense, but a great offense, pointing out how reinvention can help you take charge of your life as well as accommodate new work world realities. To support and encourage professional reinvention, the author couches the value of being able to transform yourself professionally in the context that health education itself is a profession that is constantly reinventing itself. The article includes a definition of reinvention and discussions about who reinvents themselves and when and why, and stories of six health educators and how they reinvented themselves. The article ends with suggested reinvention pre-requisites to foster successful work life transitions and transformations, and a list of ten tips for successful professional reinvention(s).

Do You Dare?
If you’re thinking, “Hey, I don’t need to read this. I’ve never been fired and I won’t ever get fired,” here are three important news flashes. One: if you’re going to survive and thrive in your personal life as well as in your work life, you need to be able to reinvent yourself. Two: reinvention is something you are doing all the time already, just unconsciously; so consciously can only help. Three: there’s a pretty good chance you will get fired, merged into unemployment, urged into early retirement, or purged in a lay off somewhere along the line ― and so what? You’ll survive. I did!

Writing this article is part of my nth professional reinvention ― this time as a “Career Development Lifeguard” ― after 40 years of work experience…since high school. That experience includes four so-called “careers” (a term I find too confining) in my work life, 15 full-time jobs, and dozens of part-time jobs. Therefore, I have not only become a fervent believer in personal and professional reinvention, I have become a staunch advocate of it!

As a health education specialist who is also certified as a senior professional in human resources, I am eager to present the concept of reinvention ― or worklife reincarnation, if you will ― within a career development context and its value as a core career development skill – right up there with strategic thinking, creativity, problem solving, writing and speaking skills, and so on. We will explore what it means to “reinvent yourself”, how you might reinvent yourself, and when you might do so. In short, we will discuss how being able to reinvent yourself ― once, twice, or as many times as professionally politic or personally pleasing ― can be a key to your success.