Article: No one is too old or too established to reinvent him or herself. Change is a part of life and can be a positive thing if you use it correctly. Be prepared to grow and adapt at every stage of life. Ask yourself which aspects of your life are being influenced by past hurts, insecurities, and regrets. Once you identify those issues, commit to letting them go so that they no longer control who you are. Write out the things that frustrate you, or that you think hold you back. Expressing your feelings can help you let go of anything unpleasant in your past. This type of list can help you learn about the skills you need to develop in order to feel fulfilled. Realize that whatever your regrets are, in some ways you are better off than others. Focus on your strengths and other positive things you take away from your past. In order to reinvent yourself, it is important not to dwell too much on the past. However, there are often lessons you can take away from the past that can improve who you are in the present. Analyze a relationship that ended painfully to determine what went wrong. Think about what you can do to prevent the same thing from happening in your next relationship. Look at which decisions led you or your family to make financial mistakes in the past. Based on this, work to develop a financial plan for the future that corrects these errors. Correcting bad habits is an important part of leaving the old you behind. It can, however, be very difficult and even intimidating. Instead of trying to change yourself all at once, focus on breaking one bad habit at a time. Make a list of the habits that really bother your. Narrow it down to the top few that you would like to break, then start by working on the most important one. Focus on the positive feelings that you first have when trying to break a bad habit. This can help you succeed. Try replacing a negative habit with a positive one. For example, if you have a habit of snacking on junk food, replace it with healthy snacks, or spend more time exercising. As soon as a negative thought about yourself or your life pops into your mind, try replacing it with a positive one. Doing so trains your mind to focus on possibilities instead of difficulties. Conceptualize the things that cause you to feel stress. Think about how you have responded to them in the past. Then, actively replace negative thoughts about those stressors with positive ones. For instance, a bad date might cause you to think something like, "I'll never find someone. There must be something wrong with me." Correct yourself with something like "This date went poorly, but that doesn't mean the right person isn't out there waiting for me. I won't find that person unless I keep looking." Your opinion of yourself is formed in part by your idea of how others see you. If you really want to redefine yourself, however, you'll need to become the person you want to be, not the person someone else expects you to be. You also need to identify and step away from social pressure that comes from society itself. Society may hold certain expectations of you based on your race, gender, economic class, or religion, and these expectations can be just as restricting.

What is a summary?
Realize it's never too late to reinvent yourself. Let go of the past. Learn from past mistakes. Choose one bad habit to break. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Stop worrying about others' opinions.