Retire or ReInvent / Ok

Retire or Re Invent?

I am 6 weeks out from a change. Maybe 5. Today I was talking to a financial planner and that was my answer to her when she asked about it. Retiring or re inventing.  

Not so strange really.  We have called it "the next chapter".

Looking back over my career I have re invented myself several times. 

I went into the wholesale business after collage. I went into the brokerage business after that and then back into the wholesale business and then back into the brokerage business.  Well then again I went back into the wholesale business and then almost finally on into the restaurant business.  

It is a good thing that this, today's blog, is not my book because even I am bored with this beginning. 

Even so the theme of reinventing oneself is a reality. I did it. I might do it again. 

A long time ago I wrote a book. I had in my mind some lessons that seemed clear at the time. I thought that life had taught me the value of doing your best and seeking out the best. That idea got lost in the writing of the book and really would be hard to see looking back at it.  I did use some quotes in the book that had felt really good when I thought about what I wanted the book to say.  Probably too many quotes really and not enough book.  Even so so of the things I read, especially good quotes, just have such an impact. 

I saw a book on a shelf upstairs a few minutes ago. All the good books are packed (retiring and moving) so I was hunting for something to read. The book that caught my attention said, "1001 books that you need to read before you die". Ok. I have already read over a 1000 books so now what. I didn't pick it up and by the way I have already read that book too. 

Well I want to go back to the idea in this short message of reinventing. Each of the prior changes that I have gone through have built on the past. They have seemed different but in many ways they seemed different because of what I did before.

I am not planning on anymore of the food business. So for the goal of reinventing now I probably have to see in my past the lessons and things I have gained from the people I have known.

Sorry but this just leads me to a quote. Marcel Proust a famous writer if you like old books, or maybe if your old, said something profound.  He said that "the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes."

I really like that quote. Looking back and thinking maybe I ought to really value the relationships and people is some new vision. Reinvention is new vision. New eyes. New conclusions. It is exciting.

One more quote. Sorry I just can't help it. T.S.Eliot is another older guy who has said some good things. In thinking of my new eyes, my reinvention, and even my hope that I can find a book in me that will be a good enough book to keep and read, I love this idea about what is coming next that he expressed so well. 

He said that "we shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Yes indeed. I see some things now that seem to be different and even original even though I have seen them before.

On the other hand I am not done. I intend to keep exploring. I have just started to figure out what the right questions really are.