What if something old is the beginning of something new?

There is something interesting about seeing what has been weathered by time and wondering if it has actually outlived its usefulness. While walking along Driftwood Beach in Georgia, it is hard not to be inspired by what remains of the large oak and pine trees.

Not everything old is finished.

Sometimes something you haven't looked at, thought about, or considered useful in years is still very much a part of what you're becoming. Recently, I found a folder of old Disney University training notes from my time at Disney Cruise Line. I hadn't looked at them in years.

At first, they were simply old notes from another chapter of my life. Until I started reading them. Early lessons about communication. Customer service. Making people feel valued.

And then I found something I wasn't expecting.

The first written-down "Renee'isms." Even back then, I was taking words other people used and finding different ways to say them. Playing with language. Creating curiosity gaps before I knew to call them curiosity gaps. Learning that when you sound different, people lean in. Twenty-something years later, that is a significant part of the work I do today.

And I had forgotten it was there. That's what has stayed with me.

How many things do you learn, experience, write down, attempt, file away or simply forget (because they become a norm for you) as you move through different chapters of your life?

And how easy is it to assume that because something belonged to an earlier chapter, it doesn't belong in the next one?

• An old notebook.
• A lesson from your first job.
• A strategy or lesson someone shared with you years ago.
• An idea you weren't ready for YET.

What looks like something "older" from your past might actually contain a clue about where you're going. Those early WDW & Disney Cruise Line training notes weren't calling me backward. They were showing me a through line that was so obviously right in front of me. Something had been developing for decades before I realized the language to name it.

What if something from an old chapter is waiting to become part of your next one?

What is around you right now, so obvious, and worth pausing to take another look?

Just because something is "old", doesn't mean it is done.

With love, Renee*