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5 Gentle Ways to Reset Your Life
"And now I'll do what's best for me." ~Unknown
Contents
What it Means to Reset Your life
5 Gentle Ways to Reset Your Life
1. Prioritize.
2. Eliminate.
3. Create.
4. Listen.
5. Be.
Several years ago, I was overcome by a profound moment of truth:
My life was an endless stream of busyness. There wasn't much of me in my life. Instead, there was mostly work. Working consumed virtually all of my time and mental energy.
Over time, my job became a beast that needed constant feeding. What's more, no matter how much I fed the beast, it was never enough. The beast followed me everywhere, always a step behind, a constant, lingering presence in my life.
When I finally (and fully) accepted that work was the primary problem in my life, I vowed to make big changes in my life. So, I set out to reset my life.
What it Means to Reset Your life
Do a quick Google search, and you'll find that different people have different views about how to define a life reset. Here's how I defined how I would do a reset in my own life:
I will reset my life by changing the actions and thinking that allowed me to get to that point in my life.
But, it was more than just deciding to think and act differently. I also decided to make those changes at my own pace and by relying on the values that were important to me.
Here are five changes I made that made a difference in my life.
5 Gentle Ways to Reset Your Life
1. Prioritize.
Prioritize what matters because everything in life can't be a priority.
Set top-level priorities for your daily life. These are the priorities that shape everything else you do. For example, I have three top-level priorities in my everyday life:
Manage stress.
Get enough sleep.
Manage my daily workload.
As long as I keep my stress under control, get enough sleep, and keep my daily workload manageable, I feel good and in control of my life.
Set realistic goals for your to-do list. To-do lists are great, but they tempt you to do too much. Don't let a long to-do list clash with your shorter list of daily priorities.
Keep a clear focus on what really matters in your life.
2. Eliminate.
Eliminate the unnecessary from life because hanging on to it serves no useful purpose.
So, what can you eliminate? Here are three things to get you started:
Any object that you don't want, use, or need.
Self-criticism that changes nothing about yourself or the situation.
People, ideas, and activities that make you feel bad about your life.
By eliminating the unnecessary in your life, you make room for what matters.
3. Create.
Create daily routines to more easily accomplish daily tasks.
Routines make life easier because we carry them out on auto-pilot. No more battling with yourself to get things done. Those things are now a part of your daily routine.
If you struggle with creating routines, start by creating tiny habits first. Then, string those tiny habits into a daily routine.
4. Listen.
Listen to the inner voice telling you something isn't right.
When your inner voice speaks, listen. I can't explain much about how life works, but I know this:
When my inner voice speaks, I listen.
I pay attention if my inner voice tells me something isn't good for me. If it warns me about a person or situation, I pay attention to that too.
We can learn a lot by listening to our inner voice.
5. Be.
Be present in every moment of every day.
When we crave something else out of life, sometimes we spend more time craving than living. The problem with that is this:
Craving prevents us from finding satisfaction - or at least peace - with the moment we're currently in.
When we focus on the future at the expense of today, we lose something in life. I believe that's why Jon Kabat Zinn encourages us to remember that "the perfect moment is this one."
Final Thoughts
In this article, I focused on five areas of change:
Prioritizing what matters because everything in life can't be a priority.
Eliminating the unnecessary from life because hanging on to it serves no useful purpose.
Creating daily routines to more easily accomplish daily tasks.
Listening to the inner voice telling you something isn't right.
Being present in every moment of every day.
It's important to remember that if we wake up one day and realize our current path isn't the right one, we have options. We can reset our life by changing our actions and how we think.
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Micro Habits: Tiny Actions, Big Results