

Ask HN: How do you re-invent yourself? - quietthrow

I think one of the great things about the united states and other such countries is that it gives lot of hope. Hope in the broad sense. We have multi billion dollar nonfiction book industry that is a proof of this where countless books are published and they sell you somebody else&#x27;s success story and ultimately we buy it the hope to change things. while buying a book or aspiring to do something different than what you have been doing is one thing, following through is a completely different thing. I think the latter can be a little bit easier with mentorship rather than reading books. Learning for peoples experiences interactively than working on change in isolation.<p>Would like to hear from the community, from people who have been able to bring pre-meditated positive change to their lives successfully. Many thanks for sharing.
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pedalpete
People change their lives every day. I think that when you over think it and
look for large scale changes instantly, that is when you run into the
challenges you are describing.

I don't know what type of change you are looking for, do you want a new
career? a change of health habits?

I like to think I've 'changed' many times. But if I look back and ask if I'm a
changed person? No, I'm not. I'm the present extension of the person I was in
the past. Different in what I've changed, but still in many ways the same.

If you want to make large scale changes, start with a few small things that
you can keep up for an extended period of time. Keep doing them, then add
more.

I think maybe staying away from the books that promise massive changes may be
a good idea.

Also, though you will want to measure your progress, be very concious of how
you do that.

Constantly asking if you're happy can lead to not being happy, because you're
always looking for this happiness.

Look at how Alcoholics Anonymous manages their people. The 12 steps has been
used to help many different types of addicts and people to change their lives.
I think it doesn't have to be only used to prevent negative behaviours, I'm
sure it is just as valuable to instilling positive behaviours.

Best of luck, and I hope this helps.

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quietthrow
I think you make a good point about starting small and keeping it up for an
extended period of time along with progress measurement along the way.

For me personally,I am looking to change health habits. But while I was
thinking about that I felt, health is just one area for me, this theme of
driving change keeps repeating in different ways for me and am sure for others
and hence the question is more directed toward driving change if you will
because what people are after today will change tomorrow and getting there I
think requires taking care of the basics which as you outlined in your reply.
Thanks for writing !

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NovemberWest
I write about that endlessly on my blog. (Link in profile if you care.) I
usually manage to post daily, sometimes twice daily. I can't possibly reduce
that ongoing process to an off the cuff comment on HN.

Best of luck.

