How to navigate life reinventions

Start over, on purpose.

A practical guide to navigating life’s major transitions – drawn from a decade of moving across the world, rebuilding a career and creating a new sense of belonging. Built around seven clear steps.

Buy the book Your guide to a new life

Prefer a signed paperback? Sydney pickup · within Australia · worldwide
Also available on Amazon and as an audiobook on Audible.

Connect & Act Media, 2026. Paperback ISBN 978-1-7646590-0-0, eBook ISBN 978-1-7646590-1-7, Audiobook ISBN 978-1-7646590-2-4

Book Overview

An enticing book about changing your life

In May 2016 I arrived in Sydney with a large suitcase and a resume that made sense somewhere else. Like many people starting over, I had a plan. What I didn’t have was certainty.

Over the following ten years, Australia became far more than a new home. It became a laboratory for change – career transitions, corporate layoffs, consulting work, volunteer leadership, startup communities, Board positions, new friendships and countless conversations that challenged my assumptions about success, belonging and identity.

Moving countries is simply one example of reinvention. The same principles apply when you change careers, rebuild after a setback, start a business, end a relationship, or step into a new stage of life. As I approached my tenth anniversary, I realised meaningful change rarely happens by accident. It follows a recognisable pattern – and that pattern became this book.

Reinvention Readiness Map - the seven steps illustrated

Gunnar Habitz with his vintage typewriter

The idea across the book

Reinvention begins with recognition, not relocation

A central idea runs through the whole book: bridges. No surprise, perhaps, when I can see the Sydney Harbour Bridge from our apartment. Many people think reinvention means leaving everything behind. My experience has been the opposite. The strongest transitions happen when we build a bridge between what we already know and what we’re about to discover.

Rather than theory alone, the book weaves personal stories together with practical observations and contributions from others who lived through their own Parallel Crossings – the moments when life quietly took them in a new direction.

The framework

Seven steps to a new life

A practical arc you can return to at any crossroads – whichever direction yours is pointing.

The Break

The moment the old chapter ends – by choice, or by force.

The Pause

The space to breathe and reflect before deciding what comes next.

The Pull

The quiet signal that points you toward what’s next.

The Preparation

Laying the groundwork so the leap isn’t a blind one.

The Network

The people who help carry you across the gap.

The Reset

Rebuilding identity, routine and confidence on new ground.

In Balance

Settling into a life that finally fits – and feels like yours.

Your Story

How can you adopt this to your life?

The foreword

The inspiration was a deeply personal book, The Flight Home. I’m deeply grateful that its author kindly agreed to write the foreword to my own story of reinvention.

With a foreword by Veronica Llorca-Smith, author of The Flight Home and The Anti-Procrastinator

Reader feedback

What readers are saying

“The book is packed with helpful and practical insights, but more importantly, his journey inspired me to trust my own path and take action, even when things feel uncertain.”

Dimi Dimitrova · Marketing Strategist & Substack Mentor, London

“This book gives you the needed step-by-step guidance. Not academic, complicated blabla, but down-to-earth, easy to implement real-life recommendations.”

Beat Bühlmann · Lecturer & Author, Zug/Dubai

The launch

Ten years, one launch night

Held at the historic Castlereagh Boutique Hotel in Sydney on 4 May 2026 – my birthday, and ten years to the day since I first arrived in Australia.

Reinvent Down Under launch night - group photo

Audiobook · Out now

Prefer to listen?

Reinvent Down Under is available now as an audiobook on various market places.

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Gunnar Habitz, author of Reinvent Down Under

Quick introduction

About the Author

Gunnar Habitz is an author, speaker and life-reinvention specialist based in Sydney. His own journey spans five countries – Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Australia – across multiple career changes, consulting roles, Board positions and startup communities.

A repeat layoff survivor, he draws on decades of experience to guide others through career and life transitions. He is the author of twenty-eight books across business, personal development and travel, including Happy Habits, Connect & Act and Lead Not Manage.

His next book, Write Your Book Backwards, helps fellow writers begin with launch and impact before drafting the book that gets them there.

Check my website

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Your next chapter is waiting

Wherever you’re standing right now, the seven steps work the same way. Start reading today.

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