Do These 4 Things When You Need a Life Reset

Productivity

Oct 8

Keep reading this post to learn:

Signs that it might be time for a life reset
4 things to do when you need to re-focus on what matters most

What makes you feel like you need a reset?

Usually, it’s when you’re feeling stretched too thin because you’re trying to do too much at once. And that doesn’t happen overnight… it happens over the course of weeks, months, and even years of us overcommitting ourselves to goals, other people’s needs, and whatever else.

And hey, I want to remind you that you’re not a failure when you feel overwhelmed or spread too thin. You’re human, okay? We all get this feeling from time to time. You’re not stuck in this place. You are smart. You are capable of re-working things to better steward your time and energy. Instead of sulking or feeling bad for yourself, take ownership of your life and make some changes.

Okay so, when I think about feeling like I need a life reset, the phrase “bursting at the seams” comes to mind. Most of the time, when you feel like you need a life reset, a serious declutter of your calendar needs to happen.

Oftentimes, when we are in this place of feeling like we need a clean slate, we are tempted to start adding stuff – reaching for new, shiny habits.

But think about it – when you’re feeling spread thin, is that really the time to start adding on more? I’m gonna say no, lol.

When I find myself in that place of feeling like I need a life reset, there are 4 things that I do and I’m going to walk you through them. These 4 things help me re-focus and reset my time and energy on what matters most to me. And I’m gonna tell you straight up a lot of them are going to sound familiar because they’re part of The Hustle Sanely Planning System! I didn’t create the system for fun… it’s something that I use in my own life to help me be peacefully productive.

01: Define what success is to you.

Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.

Most of us grew up being told what it looked like to be successful and it probably was along the lines of graduate high school, go to college, get a stable job that pays well, get married, buy a big house, buy a fancy car, have kids, work at said stable job until you retire.

We’ve grown up believing that our lives have to follow a certain path to be considered successful.

As an Enneagram 3, an achiever, I value success. BUT for so long, I didn’t realize that I was chasing a version of success that didn’t actually feel successful.  So no matter how much I accomplished, I felt unfulfilled.  We’re sold the idea that climbing the corporate ladder, owning massive home, driving the fanciest car, etc. etc. etc. = success

And none of those things are bad — they’re just not important enough for me to relentlessly pursue.

I had to *clearly* define what success was for me.  What did I care enough about to run after?  When I started pursuing things that actually mattered to me, it became a lot simpler to live a peacefully productive life, because I had a direction. I didn’t feel like a hamster on a wheel, constantly running but going nowhere. When you get clear on your vision, you can relentlessly pursue it, and I’m telling you — what doesn’t matter/doesn’t matter align with your vision — naturally starts to fall away. Distractions aren’t constantly grabbing at your mind because you’re so focused on giving your best time and energy to what matters most to you and THAT is how we Hustle Sanely.

When you know what your version of success is, you can start to build you priorities around that.

I shared a post on Instagram a few weeks ago that shared my version of success:

Success looks like:

a regulated nervous system
going on daily family walks
un-rushed mornings
enjoying hobbies
treating family + friends to meals
reading a story and saying prayers as a family before bed
prioritizing mental health hygiene
going on date nights regularly
3-day work weeks doing fulfilling work
a peaceful/cozy home
setting boundaries that protect my priorities
showing up intentionally for my loved ones
having financial freedom + time flexibility

Having that version of success in my mind, I can then decide what my priorities are in this season of my life.

In the Hustle Sanely Lifestyle course, I walk you through how to pinpoint what your priorities are – because you can’t treat everything like it’s a priority. That’s how you get to this point of feeling overwhelmed and spread too thin. Sometimes when we get to this point of feeling like we need a reset, it means that we’ve drifted away from our vision (part of our vision is what success means to us).

I like to view my vision as kind of like a north star - it guides the path that I walk in my day-to-day life. Sometimes, when life happens, we can get turned around and start walking away from our north star without realizing it.

Defining your version of success helps you decipher what’s important versus what’s not when you feel like you have too much on your plate.

02: Re-prioritize the basics.

The basics are called the basics for a reason. They are the building blocks for a strong foundation. When I say “the basics”, I’m talking about:

— Food + water intake
— Sleep
— Movement
— Human connection
— Mental health hygiene

These things are “simple” – so simple that we tend to take them for granted and let them fall to the wayside when life starts to get full or feel busy. But think about it – when these things go, your foundation crumbles. When your foundation crumbles, everything eventually collapses.

When I feel like I need a life reset, I take inventory of how I’m showing up for these 5 basic areas of my life by asking these questions:

– Food + water intake:
Am I fueling my body with enough nutrient-dense food throughout the day?
Am I drinking enough water throughout the day?

– Sleep:
Am I getting 7-8 good quality hours of sleep?
Am I being mindful of sleep hygiene?

– Movement:
Am I intentionally moving my body for at least 30 minutes every day?

– Human connection:
Am I spending consistent, uninterrupted time with my loved ones?

– Mental health hygiene:
Am I doing what I need to do in the mornings to get my mind ready for the day?
Am I doing what I need to do in the evenings to help my mind wind down?

Trust me I know how easy it can be to let these things go when you feel overwhelmed but just remind yourself that you need a strong foundation to build anything worthwhile on!

03: Declutter your plate and set boundaries to hold you accountable.

I’m gonna be honest with you - this is probably the hardest one of the 4. Because when you’re so used to doing all the things, all the time, it’s easy to trick yourself into believing that everything on your plate is absolutely 100% necessary and if you let one thing go, the world is going to end.

Seriously, I’ve been there and I know the feeling of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders all too well…thanks to Hustle Sanely, I no longer operate that way and I’m able to give the things that actually need and deserve my attention my best attention instead of trying to give a little bit of myself to everything and actually just letting everyone (including myself, mostly myself) down because I’m running on fumes and not able to do everything I claimed I could/would.

Decluttering your plate requires you to take a good, honest look at everything you’re responsible for in your life and deciding what you can let go of for now.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you decide if something can be let go of for now:

– Is this project/commitment/task essential in my life right now?

– Does this project/commitment/task have to be done by me or can someone else do it?

– Am I doing this project/commitment/task because it’s important to me or because I feel obligated to do it?

Some things that you could consider letting go in this season to help clear your plate:

– Volunteering at your church or in your kids’ classroom

– Overtime or commitments at work that are outside of your direct scope of work

– Social events hosted by people not in your inner circle

– A time-consuming hobby that is stressing you out right now and not helping you unwind (YouTube example)

And remember, letting go of something for now doesn’t mean you’re letting go of it forever. You want to do these things when you have the bandwidth and capacity to do them well, not when you feel stretched thin and you’re doing it out of obligation, you know?

And then the second part of this one is setting boundaries - boundaries with others, yes, but also boundaries with yourself. Boundaries tend to get a bad rap but the truth is boundaries help us protect our priorities.

Boundaries might look like:

– Setting work hours

– Setting social media hours

– Scheduling regular “me time” every week for your to recharge

04: Audit and update your weekly outline.

If you’ve been around Hustle Sanely for any amount of time, you’ve heard me talk about a weekly outline - it is truly one of my favorite peaceful productivity tools! Think about a weekly outline as the “bones" of your schedule - it shows you the flow of a typical week in your life.

In Step 03, you spent some time taking things off your plate so now it’s time to update your weekly outline to reflect those changes.

There are 3 steps to creating your weekly outline:

Step 01: Plug in your scheduled responsibilities in a typical week.
(Think work hours, classes, church meetings, kids’ practices, etc.)

Step 02: Plug in your non-negotiables and any supporting habits.
(Think your workouts, family walks, etc.)

Step 03: Plug in any other typical weekly routines.
(Think about morning routines, evening routines, Weekly Prep Meetings, Home Reset Routines, etc.)

I have a free workshop called the Chaos to Calm Workshop where I walk you through this process in more detail and give you a template to create a weekly outline for your current season so check out the workshop if you need support in creating a weekly outline!

But anytime that I feel like I need a life reset, I always audit and update my weekly outline so that I can help my own self out by not overextending myself.

And there you have it — 4 things to do when you need a life reset! And hey, listen, if you’re feeling SUPER overwhelmed and even these 4 steps feel like a lot, do one a week for the next month – don’t feel like you have to do all of these tomorrow if that doesn’t feel supportive for you right now.

You are the leading lady of your life, don’t forget that! 🫶🏻

HAVE YOU HEARD?