The Power of the Reset

The Power of the Reset

6th January 2024

You may be forgiven for thinking that resetting is an intentional topic for January, traditionally the month of good intentions, but the reset works perfectly at any time of the year – and at any time of the day for that matter. 

A reset, to me, is a few things. It’s an adjustment. It’s a way of returning to and reassessing your baseline. It can involve or invoke change but not necessarily. It helps calm the chaos. It is always about setting things in order. 

You can reset small things like your workspace, surgical instruments, bookshelf, filing systems, shoe rack… Instead of looking at your life and environment as a whole; you can simply reset some areas. You can reset whatever you need to, when you need to, and not get overwhelmed or distracted by the bigger picture.

Kaizen theory is based on incremental change for the better. Resetting fits in with this concept as it’s not all about making wholesale differences. Its joy is in improving things little by little. Each reset adds up. 

“Where innovation demands shocking and radical reform, all Kaizen asks is that you take small, comfortable steps toward improvement.” Robert D Maurer

An acquaintance is extremely messy and she gets overwhelmed by the idea of tidying up. Once she had learned about the concept of the reset she was ecstatic. She no longer felt under pressure to clean her whole house, agree to every social occasion or achieve something significant every day at work. Little by little she manages to make a difference to her mental and physical state without the overwhelm. That’s Kaizen in practice. 

The reset provides the perfect opportunity for some mindfulness. Tidying, sorting and arranging all provides some scope for switching off and emptying our minds for a few minutes. So not only are you improving your surroundings and systems you are also restoring some order internally as well.

You can use a reset as an opportunity to focus a wandering mind. When you’re facing an unusually busy time, you could take time out to make a list of things to be done or reorganise your workspace. This is also a type of mindfulness, arranging your thoughts and taking time now to create better quality, productive time later.

By the way, autocorrect prefers ‘rest’ to ‘reset’ – I believe one eventually leads to the other.

What could you reset right now to make your life more ordered and restful? I am starting by writing the key dates of my work-life on a wall planner – speaking engagements, training courses and other commitments. This means I can keep an eye on the shape of my year which might influence what I agree to as the year progresses. 

You can, if you wanted to, reset some of life’s bigger ticket items such as life goals but I prefer to integrate the reset into each and every day so that, in line with Kaizen, it’s a series of achievable, small steps.