I love the word re-invention. It gets me all giddy and excited, because it means that you are actively working on becoming more YOU.

Over the holidays, my family likes to reminisce a bit about our old times and that includes the different funny (& sometimes strange :)) phases my brothers and I went through. For example, I went through what my family calls "Caroline's punk phase": I dyed my hair black and wore enormous black "tractor" shoes. Thinking about my life so far, I can clearly see that I have tried on many different personas because I was eagerly searching for myself. I was trying to find out who I was, what fit and where I felt at home.

This is an extremely important part of life and I believe that "finding oneself" never ends. There will always be changes, re-configurations, adjustments, and yes re-inventions. The more we get to know ourself, the more we understand our own brand and the more we can cue in to our own purpose and meaning in life.

Let me make one thing clear: wanting to re-invent yourself does not mean that you dislike yourself presently. It just means that you are curious and that you are feeling this inner urge to be exactly who you are -without apologizing for it!

It is Self-Actualization and it's awesome and necessary if you want to live a self-approved life!

Re-invention, therefore, is something completely natural, normal, and -if driven by your authentic Self- a very very good thing.

Think about how nature changes constantly in order to fit the different seasons. Leaves change color, water freezes, flowers bloom, animals change their behavior throughout the year. It's survival. The same changes are necessary for us -our bodies, our inner lives, our perception of the world, who we are and what we are meant to do.

So, the questions is: How can you reflect your own growth to the world in an authentic way? How can we actively support our desire to re-invent ourselves?

Here are 3 steps to follow to kick-start your personal re-invention:

1) What are your personal values? I'm not talking about the values that sound good or make you a good person, I am talking about the kind of values that really get you jazzed. I'm talking about the kind of values that make you so excited, so giddy, and so filled with energy that you cannot help yourself. What do you value?

2) What does it feel like to be your ideal you? Something I have noticed in my coaching practice is that very often people are pre-occupied with doing the right thing, being nice, doing what makes sense, being good. Once we dissect the way my clients have chosen to live their lives, they realize that they are incredibly bored and that they deeply desire a spiced-up life! They are bored with the way they look, what they do on the weekends, and everyone's opinion being overly PC. They wish that their lives felt more free, crazy, sexy, intriguing and fun! Begin with imagining how you would like to feel differently as your ideal you, in a skin that felt incredible, in a life that felt really worth living.

3) Start living the changes you crave step-by-step. Dare to speak your thoughts and opinions without thinking about what everyone else will think first. Dress more uniquely YOU. Play with your make-up and your jewelry. Play PERIOD. Try a belly-dancing or a kick-boxing class. Dance in your living room. Go on vacation with a group of people you don't know (or travel by yourself). Change jobs. Date someone totally out of your comfort zone. Be more spontaneous. Say NO more often. Say YES more often. Paint without having an outcome in mind. Let your mind flow freely and write whatever comes to your mind. Allow yourself to be YOU without letting fears, potential embarrassments, or worries get the better part of you. It's ok to try out something new and like it or not like it. Allow yourself to collect experiences and then decide if something feels good.

I promise that reflecting about your personal changes -how you have grown, what fits and what doesn't, what ideas interest you and which ones bore you, what feels exciting and what's exhausting- will be an extremely rewarding experience. It will shift your life to a higher frequency and will ultimately make you feel alive, powerful, and in charge of your own life.

Personally, I always try to become a little bit more ME. It feels like mini-victories because I am honoring myself and it's plain fun to learn more about who I am and what my life has to offer.

That also means that re-invention or re-branding is something that is equally necessary and exciting for me. A few months ago, I began to realize that I didn't get as much pleasure anymore when I was hanging out on my own website. I somehow felt that I had outgrown it and that it no longer fit who I had been becoming and so I started to think about how I had changed and what would better reflect me to my readers. I realized that I felt more grown-up and lighter. I wanted to simplify and de-clutter. I strongly felt that I wanted to reflect these changes visually. I loved this process of re-branding and hope that it will make it more fun and easier for you to hang out on www.carolinezwick.com :) I would love to hear your thoughts!

Here is to YOUR RE-INVENTION!

Xo,