Your WILL is the Key to Reinvention | Victoria Kennedy | TEDxTenayaPaseo
The key to reinvention is daily choice, asserting that "what do I will" is more powerful than "what do I want." The speaker proves this by detailing how leaving the convent, winning a scholarship, and later building her own business demonstrates that identity is constantly malleable through deliberate action. She urges the audience to seize control by making small, conscious daily decisions rather than waiting for a grand epiphany.
## Speakers & Context
- Unnamed speaker delivering a talk, framed as a TEDx-style presentation.
- The core theme is the necessity of "daily reinvention."
## Theses & Positions
- *What do I want* is insufficient; true agency lies in *what do I will*.
- Reinvention is not a single, dramatic event but a *"daily practice."*
- Life's narrative is written *"day by day through the individual choices we make."*
- Embracing reinvention allows individuals to command full charge of their lives, rejecting narratives written by others.
- Identity is not fixed; one can *"wake up tomorrow and make a different choice."*
- Individuals must own their own perspective to events, rather than allowing external forces (like social media or external expectations) to define them.
## Concepts & Definitions
- **Daily Reinvention:** The practice of making conscious, deliberate choices to change oneself or one's circumstances incrementally.
- **Will vs. Want:** The distinction between merely desiring something (a wish) and actively choosing to bring it into existence (will).
- **Identity Crisis:** The concept that the speaker ultimately refutes, arguing that continuous small choices prevent one from experiencing it.
## Mechanisms & Processes
- **The Process of Reinvention:**
1. Making a conscious, deliberate choice daily.
2. Making that choice followed by massive action.
3. This process can be scaled down into manageable steps (e.g., setting screen time limits).
- **Personal Skill Acquisition:** Learning a new field (like marketing) when transitioning from one career path to the next.
- **Ownership of Perspective:** Actively deciding how one wishes to interpret incoming events, rather than reacting to them.
## Timeline & Sequence
- **Age 16:** Initial desire to devote life to God, leading to joining the convent.
- **Early Life (Convent):** Period of isolation, sadness, and failure to achieve the expected "Sound of Music" life.
- **Departure:** Left the convent after a couple of months.
- **Reinvention 1:** Shifted from nun to professional opera singer; entered a local beauty pageant to win scholarship money for study.
- **Education/Career Peak:** Graduated with honors from the University of Southern California and performed globally.
- **Crisis 1:** Visa refusal, resulting in returning to America with only a suitcase and $500.
- **Reinvention 2:** From performer to entrepreneur, starting her own company, "victorious pr."
- **Present Day:** Leading a business, sharing the narrative on the TEDx stage.
## Named Entities
- **University of Southern California** — college from which the speaker graduated with honors.
- **victorious pr** — the speaker's own company.
## Numbers & Data
- Age when joining the convent: **16**.
- Amount of money upon returning to America: **$500**.
- Time frame for building the business: **nine months**.
## Examples & Cases
- **The Convent Life:** Contrary to Hollywood depiction, the reality was sorrowful; the speaker cried herself to sleep nightly.
- **The Pagetant Transition:** Being a former nun, strutting on stage in a bikini during the pageant.
- **The Fall:** Losing a "fairy tale life" overnight when the government refused to renew her visa.
- **The Business Success:** Building a business to a six-figure income in the first nine months.
- **Shakespeare Quote:** *"There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so."*
## Tools, Tech & Products
- **Phone/Social Media:** Used as an example of external forces dictating behavior through notifications.
- **Screen Time (Phone):** Suggested tool for managing daily reinvention by setting limits (e.g., not checking notifications until 10 am).
## References Cited
- **John Milton:** Quoted in relation to *Paradise Lost*: *"the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven."*
- **Shakespeare:** Quoted: *"there is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so."*
## Counterarguments & Caveats
- Platitudes like *"don't reinvent the will"* are presented as limiting beliefs designed to keep people compliant.
- The concept that external events (like a failing visa) can force reinvention is acknowledged, but the focus remains on internal response.
## Methodology
- **Psycho-social narrative:** Using personal biography to establish a universal principle of psychological agency.
- **Actionable steps:** Providing a three-step process for daily reinvention:
1. Acknowledging daily choice over pre-set identity.
2. Accepting that change is inevitable, but defining its meaning personally.
3. Choosing to *lead* the change rather than being forced by it.
## Conclusions & Recommendations
- Daily reinvention is the key, achievable through small, consistent choices.
- The speaker is currently "reinventing herself daily," having successfully transitioned from an opera career to entrepreneurship.
- Recommendation for the audience: Own your perspective, take it one day at a time, and consciously decide what you will build next.
## Implications & Consequences
- **Empowerment:** The consequence of adopting this mindset is the ability to withstand major life collapses (like the visa loss) and adapt successfully.
- **Critique of External Control:** Suggests that allowing external forces (media, critics, government) to define one's identity leads to diminished agency.
## Verbatim Moments
- *"what do you will the key to reinvention is daily reinvention"*
- *"I literally thought i'd be running through the hills singing my his are alive with a sound of music but it wasn't like that at all"*
- *"what do i want is nothing more than a wish"*
- *"No it isn't history is written day by day through the individual choices we make and continue making"*
- *"I discovered that living out my dreams is not about what i want it's about what i will myself to do"*
- *"I didn't think about whether i was being true to myself and okay at 16 i didn't even know who myself was all i knew for sure was that i had a new dream and i had to become someone different in order to get it"*
- *"the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven"*
- *"i didn't have an identity crisis in fact i didn't think much at all about how different the two paths were"*
- *"let me ask you were there any wheels on that first rocket that landed on the moon no and are there any wheels on submarines which plunge thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean and open our minds to whole worlds that would otherwise remain completely unknown"*
- *"don't reinvent the will in other words you can't have a life where you travel the world live your dreams and work for yourself"*
- *"If you don't start small you won't start at all resize the overwhelm into manageable steps"*
- *"I'm reinventing myself daily who knows which adventure i'll will myself on next"*