Can we bring back the dead? No, not THAT kind of dead!

Not dead bodies, but former dead selves. People we used to be. I’ve done it.

I’m not talking about getting out the shovel and digging up uncle Geraldo. This is more about former selves, people we “used to be.” Can we bring them back? Are they forever gone once they’re gone? Or is it like Michael Jordan and retirement?

Here’s the scenario:

1. I used to be a writer.
2. Then I wasn’t a writer. That part of me was in the past. Dead. It was a sad death.
3. I tried, not very wholeheartedly, to bring him back. He didn’t come back.
4. I killed my current self (no, not like that!).
5. That made room for my former self to return.
6. Done!

I was talking with a friend about this (yes, this can come up in conversations with me … try me) and she said that I shouldn’t want to resurrect my former self because there were many good things about the current self that I might want to hold onto. I didn’t just want to be only that former self, I wanted to be the good parts of the former self combined with the good parts of the current (and recently alive) self. Aha, good point.

The difference between the idea of being someone and being that someone are the difference between peanuts and peanut butter.

You can’t even recognize one from the other. They don’t even have similar characteristics. I liked the idea of being a writer over the past decade, but I wasn’t willing to take the leap of faith to becoming a writer again.

But I’ve done it. It’s clear. It’s done because I say it’s done. It has happened because I forced and pushed and pulled and allowed it to happen. It’s happening because I’m no longer letting it not happen.

What former self or part of a former self would you like to resurrect from the dead? Can you bring them back to life?

P.S. I’m filing this under Delegating. 😉