Hit Reset

5 days.
No phone. No wi-fi. No social media. No TV. No news. No coffee.
Yoga. Meditation. At least 1,000 OMs.
That’s how I spent my Easter weekend.

The morning after, awaiting my flight home, I glanced at the TV monitor in the departure area of the Nashville airport. The ticker tape scrolled – the Mueller report was public, there was a suicide bombing in Sri Lanka. I went back to my book. I had no interest in the news. But I did troll the airport once I was through security to find Starbucks and a piping hot, rich, frothy double espresso.

“I just hit reset,” I murmured to myself. The RESET button on an electronic device does exactly what it says – resets a device to its original settings. I felt like my body, mind and spirit had returned to its original setting – peace, bliss, calm, equilibrium.

Some people “reset” in a big way – they leave their corporate jobs and head for the off-grid, hippie life on a tropical beach, the wilds of Alaska, an ashram in India. They turn up years later with tales to tell of their adventure in bliss and freedom. Some never return – permanent defectors from job-jail. Many of us dream of this life, of having the courage to just chuck it all and live simply, without stress and the demands of our acquisition-obsessed world. But, there’s the mortgage. And 3 children to put through university. Plus, retirement and old age to save for. So, we put up with the job that at the least, doesn’t excite or motivate us, and at the most, we loathe.

On the other hand, some of us thrive in our jobs: we love running our organizations, providing massive value to clients and leading our teams. We experience great joy and fulfilment from our work. From time to time however, we feel burnt out. Our vacations are never long enough or often enough. Weekends are a blur. When we get to a stage of overwhelm, and the burnt-out feeling is relentless, perhaps it’s time for a quick reset. If hitting “reset” works for our electronic devices, shouldn’t we apply this to our lives as deliberate practice?

Here are 7 lessons from my “reset” experiences:

1. Decide where you want to go and for how long – 2 years ago I had a yearning for doing nothing on a tiny cay in Belize for 5 days. This time, it was to go within.
2. Keep it simple. A “reset” is not the time for a whirlwind tour of 5 countries in 3 days. This is a time for doing as little as possible.
3. Go alone. Yes. No spouse, no children. Just you. This is selfish “me time” – savour it with no guilt!
4. Unplug. NO connection to the outside world. Turn off the phone, leave the laptop at home.
5. Do not disturb. Let one or two dear ones know where you are, and how you can be reached in case of emergency ONLY (and define emergency – it should be dire). Trust me, there will be no emergency.
6. Returning to “reality” will feel jarring, so plan to return gently. Make sure to take an extra day after your “reset” to settle in before returning to work.
7. And be conscious about what you will add back – I decided coffee and social media would return, but not the news (I still don’t know what’s in the Mueller report). Ideally, you want “reality” to be like your reset … peace, bliss, calm, equilibrium.

A reset experience will make you feel rested, physically, emotionally and mentally. It will make you more keenly aware of your environment, your thoughts and actions and the actions of others. It will bring you clarity about what’s important to you and what you want/don’t want. It will bring joy … and if it doesn’t last, there are always opportunities to hit reset again and again.

Do leave a comment about your experience with hitting “reset”