Photographs: Unsplash
Text: Ophelia Wu
Last month I wrote about a mini check-in and stock-taking three months into the new year. After a little inventory check, what about a little reset and regroup?
The word 're' has been given a rather bad reputation. Redo, rework, revisit, revise, rejection; but there are also some good ones such as receive, recharge, and recover. Every 're' comes with a new chance to rebuild something, to make it better and perfect it. For example, have you tried to look at some decorations at home and suddenly decided to rearrange them into something else, and are you satisfied with the new outcome? That's precisely what it is about, only that you take a step back and look at the bigger picture of your life, rearrange and remove some of the people, things, situations, and thoughts as it fits to make a satisfying outcome.
Resetting as a tool to redirect
Resetting might sound very stressful and heavy but think of resetting your laptop or mobile - sometimes it just needs a little boost, and restarting it, it's all fresh again. We receive an overwhelmingly massive amount of information, emotions and stimulation. It's so easy to take them all in unconsciously and store them in our minds and body. But, like the phone, we also get to a point where it can overload and freeze, especially near total capacity.
What do you do then? You go into your phone's storage and clear or offload any old, unnecessary, irrelevant files to clear up space. Why don't you do the same to your mind, body and soul? Resetting just a little gives you room for feeling and thinking clearly. We are quickly on auto-pilot mode without even noticing it, so this is an excellent chance to pause and redirect to where we want to be. Make good use of this, and as much as you need, it is totally ok to pause a little, put things on hold, drop some irrelevant thoughts/ people/emotions, and leave circles and situations that do not serve you anymore. Only by doing so you're keeping yourself on track to allow chances to pivot.
"After you've cleared out everything that is no longer relevant to your life, you have fewer issues to look after."
Regrouping for clarity and focus
After you've cleared out everything that is no longer relevant to your life, you have fewer issues to look after. Now is an excellent time to look at different areas in life and see what needs to be rearranged and regrouped. Perhaps your current role is not allowing you to fully develop your potential, so start looking into opportunities that can let you shine better. Maybe your current diet is a bit imbalanced due to stress - resetting and redirecting will allow you to try something new to rectify it. This can give more clarity and perspective into many things, clearing out what is unnecessary and irrelevant. Doing so is going to bring more focus. With this sense of clarity and focus, not only do you approach things differently, but you will also be able to come up with some creative solutions that weren't easily reached before because it was simply too chaotic.
After all, we just want some clarity and focus, have some guidance towards the direction in life to get to where we want. Only when you own that clarity and focus in life can you stay centred and hold that vision for the future. With that confidence and inner knowing, you can be more open to whatever changes and surprises might be thrown at you and won't throw you off balance. This is where the fun begins - your clarity and focus are your strongest anchors.