I cannot pronate my wrists.  Unlike most other people who can turn their arms so that their wrists completely face upwards, I can only turn mine slightly outward.  It’s why I had so much trouble growing up and trying to learn bar chords on the guitar.  The F chord was my nemesis and I always got an F on trying to bar it. When I get my early morning coffee at the drive-up window I seem to be fated by the attendant handing me the coins on top of the bills which are on top of the receipt. I simply can’t turn my wrist in such way as to grasp my change without it spilling all over the ground between my car and the drive-up window inviting the cacophony of customers blowing their horns behind me. The regular attendants know me well enough by now that I’ve got them conditioned to hand me my change first then my bills. However, there’s always that one new or fill-in person that brings back bad memories of my F chords.

Recently on a day off I filled my car with gas at the same convenience mart at which I buy my morning coffee. I decided to walk inside to get my java jolt. The gentleman who took my order didn’t look up. He just repeated, “one medium coffee with one cream and two sweet and lows.” I handed him a twenty and as I did he looked up for a brief second then down again at the register remarking, “I think we can do better than that” and suddenly the senior discount was calculated into my purchase total. There was that flash of reality that my senior status was evident to the general public. I joked and said to the attendant, “It’s pretty scary when you don’t even have to ask for the discount!” His reply doubled my self-consciousness since he looked to me as if he had at least a decade jump start on my years: “I can’t wait to be eligible for senior discounts but I’ve got a way to go.”

I pronated my experience as if I had just barred the F chord for the first time. I realized that I had just been rewarded for being nothing more than who I am! And, isn’t that what career reinvention is all about: being who we truly are with the added gift of being positively recognized and rewarded for it. When we reinvent ourselves we move from a place of doing what others expect of us and not using our true talents and abilities to becoming master of our destiny. The essence of career reinvention is authenticity; becoming fully aware of the genuine calling within us and living our life in tune with it…with the espresso kick of not only being accepted for it but admired and rewarded along the way.