At some point in our lives, we always ask the question: “How can I reset my life?” This feeling of wanting to reset one’s life usually happens when one experiences, or is undergoing, a major life event. Some people may also want to reset their life in order to make a change to their regular routine. Whether you find your life too boring and want it to be more fun; or your current life feels unstable and you want to make changes to find more stability; a life reset is an important process. There are different ways to go about it. Generally, these are the steps on how to reset your life.
1. Make an honest assessment
Before you can move on to the next phase; an honest assessment of your current state of life is very important. This is the time to examine your life, and your life choices, and take a closer look at what the results have been. Where the results bad or unsatisfying? Is your current life comfortable but not fun anymore? Do you want to take on new challenges? Be honest with yourself and don’t think about who or what to blame. Accepting the situation as well as your own faults is the only way you can correct them.
The goal of this assessment is not just to identify the negatives in your self and in your life. It will help you see how and where you can change things. With an honest assessment about your current life situation; you can see more clearly what things you are unsatisfied about. You can determine what decisions you made or did not make, that resulted in the situation you are in right now. This will make it easier to pinpoint where you can start to change things.
2. Envision the change that you want
We used to imagine all kinds of fun and adventures when we were children. Imagining the life you want is an important step in how to reset your life. Just as you were honest in assessing your current life situation; be honest to what you truly want in life. Take the time to think about this and to envision the life that you want. Spend some time in meditation on how you want your new life to be. An important factor you should consider in this step are your thoughts and feelings. Ask yourself: “What thoughts and feelings would the new me have when I am living the life I want?”
Create a vision board or write down your vision for a new life or record yourself as you talk about it. Review your vision board, what you wrote or what you recorded. Try to identify the major keywords you used. List down your goals based on these keywords. Don’t be too strict about it. Focus on your major goals first. Finally, try to summarize your major life goals into a single statement. This will be your vision statement that will regularly remind you of your major life goals.
3. Make your goals SMART
Now that you have your major goals, it’s time to break them down into actionable and measurable steps. Follow the SMART method when doing this. It is important that you break down your major goals into smaller goals to make it easier for you to implement them. Think of your major goals as the destination and smaller goals are what will make up your daily routine. Your daily goals will serve as a checklist that will help you measure your progress towards your major goals.
Having a checklist of smaller goals makes it easier for you to focus on them daily. This makes the process of developing new habits smoother. This also helps prevent decision-fatigue. Decision fatigue happens when you are presented by too many choices. You end up wasting time thinking about what the best choice is. By having a daily routine to follow, you waste less time having to make a choice and gain more time to be productive.
4. Setup your self for success
To make your daily routine even easier to implement, setup your environment so you can focus on accomplishing what you need to do. An organized space helps in maintaining an organized mind. One of the things you can do is to start decluttering your space. Get rid of the things that you are not using anymore. You can also give them away or sell them. Redecorate your space if you have to. Clear away negative energy to freshen your environment. Prepare the things that you will need for your daily goals. For example, prepare your exercise clothes the night before. It will remind you to exercise as soon as you see them when you wake up in the morning. You might consider decluttering your closet as well.
To maximize your productivity, setup your work space so you have all the stuff you need to use without having to waste time looking for them. Be sure to include the things that you love in your spaces but keep them focused on what the purpose of the area or room is. So keep your computer in your workspace and your TV in the living room. Try not to work in your bedroom so you can keep your room a space for relaxing.
5. Stay in a positive mindset
Making any change in life, small or big, always entail challenges. It can be challenging for you personally to start new habits and replace old ones. The process can also be challenging if people around you, or your environment, is not supportive of the changes you want to make. Making change is always a process of trial and error. Don’t be afraid to fail and learn from them instead. By looking at things from a learning perspective, you can keep yourself in a positive mindset.
It is also helpful to keep a gratitude journal so that you can keep track of the positive things that you are experiencing in your daily life. If writing is not your style, just list down at least 3 things that you are grateful for each day. Or just take the time to sit down and say a prayer or meditate on the blessings you experienced for the day. This is one good habit that will definitely be helpful in how to reset your life.
Feature Image: Original Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.