How to Reset Yourself (my reset routine works great)
Welcome to the guide on how to reset yourself. But really, it’s like a practical guide on how to not lose your mind. These are my best tips – the things that really worked for me. This is my reset routine.
I’m a musician and artist and it can be way too easy to feel like I’m not quite up to snuff — or to get lost in the deep, dark crevices of social media and the internet.
So sometimes, I need a reboot.
I mean, things can get pretty ridiculous — like how am I not crushing it or living in Bali with a successful online business and 100,000 followers yet?
Hah.
Occasionally refreshing my screen (i.e., my day…work…my life) goes a long way. This is a guide of my top moves that help me completely reset and refresh.
So let’s get it.
1. Fix the Comparison Culture Trap
I always like to start here. Comparison is insidious.
It destroys creativity, clarity and growth (and happiness). So let’s nip it in the bud.
The only person you should compare yourself to is yourself, in the past. The only question that matters is this: am I growing and am I improving?
If not, that’s the perfect place to start for reclaiming a wandering mind, or a feeling of being stuck.
If you need to, get off social media – or change who you follow and what you see. There’s a lot of toxic, unhealthy content out there, so choose things that are inspiring and helpful.
Eventually, with the right mindset (as we’ll talk about below), you can start to shift comparison to healthier inspiration.
2. Refocus On Skill Building + Education
Skill building and education always give me new perspectives, motivation and ideas.
I can feel, in real time, that I’m bettering myself and working towards some higher goal or purpose.
So a great way to reset yourself is to learn a new skill or improve on an existing one — because even experts have more to learn.
Bonus points if you can attach that skill to some personal goal or your values and vision (more on that below).
3. Use A Growth Mindset
It’s my view that our mindsets are one of the most important assets and skills we can develop.
Our mindsets will influence our health, wellness, happiness and confidence. Literally, everything we want to do and achieve traces back to our mindset.
Believing in yourself is a great first step, but I like to use science here — so I can actually believe what I’m trying to tell myself. Specifically, I like to remember the science of neuroplasticity.
This is a fascinating field that essentially proves our brains are able to adapt, change and learn new things – like, anything.
This throws a wrench in the whole fixed mindset idea that we’re either “born with it” or not.
And this reality of being able to grow our skills includes being able to change our perspectives on things.
At the end of the day, it’s just way more fun, inspiring and motivating to come from a place of growth potential (vs. thinking you have no control or ability to improve).
So doing a hard reset with a growth mindset is pure synergy.
4. Exercise Break
I was reading an article recently, and it said that exercise is apparently good for you (insert appropriate sarcasm).
I mean, it’s physically beneficial, for sure, but it’s also super powerful for our mental health and clarity. It’s good for our minds and our body.
So a simple way to reset our minds and energy to to start implementing an exercise routine – whatever that may look like.
I like doing push ups, going snowboarding and yoga (but I’m keen to try kickboxing or some form of martial arts next).
And you don’t need to stress about pushing yourself to some extreme either, even light exercise has benefits and leads to a healthier, more sustainable habit formation.
Because a big part of resetting (for me) is new habit formation out of that sort of blank slate.
5. Step Away (or Get Away)
Stepping away is a classic move. It can help us refresh and reset our perspectives on things.
We can step away by taking a short 20 minute break or going for a walk, or we can get away, by taking a vacation day or even traveling. These things can seriously help reset our life.
Actually, I’m a huge advocate for travel specifically, so if you can swing it – do it!
But a simple solution to not losing our minds is simply scheduling in more breaks. We need a life-work balance (life first, work second – at least until we get to a better place or not needing a reset).
6. Remember Your Values
This is a big one for me – knowing and remembering my core values.
And if you’re not entirely sure what they are, it’s actually kind of fun to find out. You know those personality-type tests we all love? Well they have them for values too.
I used the free test offered through personalvalu.es to learn what my top five artistic and musician values were. And I’ve gotta say, they were pretty spot on.
It’s actually the background to my homescreen now, so I’m always thinking about them and basing major decisions on whether they suit my values or not.
And if you’re doing a reset, having some values in place can be great way to build up after the refresh.
(FYI, the personal values test above gives you a free phone background download of your top values, so you can keep them top of mind like I do)
7. Know My Why (and Some Goals)
If you’ve started implementing some of the other tips (like finding your value system or skill building), then you may be able to better define your why and some of your macro goals.
Having a driving purpose, reason and goal that’s attached to the things you’re doing can provide a lot of motivation and inspiration.
Once you have isolated some larger, long-term goals, a good strategy is to break them down into smaller bite-sized goals and tasks to complete.
This is reverse engineering your goals, and it’s super helpful to make them feel more attainable (which helps in creating a successful reset routine).
8. Reorganize My Schedule: Do More of What I Want
This one can feel pretty obvious — i.e., do more of what you love.
But it’s often forgotten or not taken seriously. So reorganizing and reprioritizing your schedule is a helpful strategy for a successful reset.
After all, we don’t want to just end up in the same situation that got us to needing a reset in the first place.
So schedule more time for you. Find a new hobby if you need to, otherwise find a way to make more time for yourself and your passions.
Here are some quick tips to find more time to do what you love:
(Re)prioritize things
Organize your day differently
Delegate tasks or outsource tasks
Make a schedule for you time, and stick to it
9. Status Check: Is the Deck In Our Favor?
What’s one of my favorite ways to reset myself? Stack the cards in my favor.
We’re surrounded by all sorts of outside influences, people and ideas. And they’re not always conducive for our goals, clarity and mindset.
So take stock of the things in your life and adjust them to better support you. Here are 3 key areas I feel are most important:
Your inner circle (who you spend your time with)
Your outer circle (the content you consume daily and download subconsciously)
Your environment (your home, room and spaces – the smell, design, sounds, etc.)
10. Laugh More + Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously
This one is also simple: laugh more (and don’t take yourself too seriously).
We can sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves, our work and life in general.
So refocusing things to a more casual place can do wonders for our sanity. Laughing more and not reacting to everything with quick emotional responses is like a secret wisdom weapon.
Of course, this is easier said than done, and it’s not something that just comes overnight (usually).
But becoming aware of this idea is the first step. And what better time to adopt this practice than during a reset?
So catch yourself when you're feeling stressed. Take a step back and consider a larger macro perspective. And practice gratitude and happiness for what you have now.
Basically, just go easy on yourself – you’re probably doing a lot better than you realize.
But at the end of the day, never feel bad for feeling a little off some days. As one of my favorite movie quotes goes (Alice In Wonderland):
“Have I gone mad?”...“I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”
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