We all need to go on more dates. With ourselves.

A woman on LinkedIn began a discussion in which she asked what advice her readers would give someone who’s trying to reinvent themselves.

The answers were varied — some thoughtful, some semi-cliché. Some were vague (“think logically”) and some were rambling. One woman recommended the person make a date with their soul, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because I’ve been trying to do this very thing with fluctuating degrees of success.

I took myself on a date the other night — really carved out some time and sat, thought, sat some more, then thought some more. The problem is that I had a splitting headache which made anything darn near impossible, particularly thinking. Successful in making time, unsuccessful in thinking things through.

I like to go on dates in the morning, even though I’m not a morning person. My morning commutes are a great time for this. I listen to music, think, wonder, look at scenery, people-watch and, yes, I watch the road, as well. It’s a good almost-hour that I have to let my brain warm up for the day, and in this time I feel like we can really hear our soul speak. It’s starting to stir, and it’s shifting around a bit under the covers. If you asked it a question, you’d get a pretty honest answer. Example: Do you want to be awake right now? No? What’s a better hour for you? The “better hour” might dovetail nicely into where your reinvention may exist.

The mere idea of a date is one that speaks to giving oneself credit. You believe you’re worthy of someone else, therefore you go out on a limb. The soul-searching date is the same thing. Do it, and you’re entertaining the possibility of doing more, being more, exploring more, allowing more.

If I were to have answered the woman’s question, I’d have said this: Give it a shot. Try your hand at it. What’s the worst that can happen? If you don’t do, you’ll never know. If you do, you can then refine, hone and zero in on something in a way that you’d never be able to do had you not tried.

Then I’d say this: the people in the world who we admire and applaud are people who didn’t know for a fact that they’d succeed at their efforts — they’re simply people who thought, “Why not?”

It’s a good question. Why not?

Tonight I am thankful for quiet time and dreams of reinvention, and for knowing that getting there can sometimes be as simple as taking a step. No step, no reinvention. Step, and the possibilities could be endless. Take yourself on a date and see where things lead. You might be surprised.