How to Reinvent Yourself After Heartbreak

Today, are going to take those lessons and learn how to apply that divorce gift so you can continue to move on with your life.

Don’t think of yourself as just a “divorcee.” You are so much more than that.

For years, you probably defined yourself as spouse, partner, and caregiver. Those definitions are all great, but they only make up a part of you. And when we tie ourselves to those definitions, we forget about all the things we once were.

But you are now given the incredible gift of redefining yourself. What do you identify with? Are you are dreamer, thinker, and doer?

It’s time to start embracing all the things you are besides just a person who’s no longer married. Take a moment to write down at least three ways to see yourself beyond your marital status. For example…

I am one hell of a friend and I always have my friends’ back.

I am a traveler who dreams, plans, and is bold enough to travel to those places others merely see in their dreams.

I am a master in the kitchen who knows how to whip up a feast from five ingredients hiding in my pantry.

Now it’s your turn! What are all the awesome things about yourself that you have overlooked during the divorce? Will you start seeing yourself for all these great things you are and all the great things you do?

Remember—being divorced means that now, you call the shots. You get the freedom to do what you want, when you want, and treat yourself like the queen you are. So start thinking of your self-identification beyond your divorce—which is just one small slice of who you actually are and all the amazing things that you are actually doing.

Have a plan for yourself. It’s the chance to chart your own destiny.

Divorce after a years-long marriage can leave us confused with how to plan for ourselves since plans usually involved the spouse. But your life doesn’t stop just because your marriage ended. It just means that you now have the freedom to do things on your own terms.

That sort of freedom can seem overwhelming at first. But having a plan doesn’t have to be! A great way for creating a reinvention plan for yourself is to answer the following questions:

Want do you want for yourself?
What steps will you take to get what you want?
Who can help you along the way?

Sometimes it can be difficult identifying the steps to get what you want as you continue to reinvent yourself after divorce. Living under different circumstances than you did when you were married, or if you are retired, on a fixed income, makes many older women thing that they will not be able to do the things they want, but this is not necessarily the case.

There are many excellent resources and professionals with expertise you not just live within your means, but thrive during the best years of their lives. The key is recognizing that you deserve to be happy and that with some planning, there is no reason you cannot achieve that for yourself.

Don’t view your divorce as a failure. View it as your second chance.

Many of us, even years after a divorce, carry an unfair burden. We wrongly think that the fact that because their marriage ended means they failed at something. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

If you really want to move the hell on, you need to start thinking of the end of your marriage not as some tragedy, but instead as the gift that it really is. When you view your divorce as the opportunity to now define life on your own terms, the chance to be happy again, and the chance to now write this new chapter in your life as your own vision and not your former partner’s, then you are creating the best possible future for yourself.

Nobody can change the past. However, always remember that divorce does not mean you are not worthy of celebrating these next years of your life. In fact, reinventing yourself beyond the label of “divorcee,” learning to plan for the things you now have the freedom to do, and viewing your divorce as a learning experience that has now let you define life on your own terms means you now have the chance to move forward to an amazing future. And that’s what treating your divorce like a gift is all about.