RESET Life for a Better RESTART !

At times, what we perceive as "CRISIS" turns out to be a "blessing in disguise". When times get as bad as they could and everything around us appears bleak, we can still find the silver lining if we turn attention inwards. Remember, challenging and tough times like these are an opportunity to build resilience, a quality that stands us in good stead in turbulent times like these. When crisis push us to adopt "self-isolation" as a way of life, then instead of panic, fear and hopeless, it makes sense to reset ourselves and work on creating a better version of ourselves.  

Few key areas that facilitate the RESET process are as below: 

• Fears - Ever experienced "self-limiting" thoughts holding you back from taking action and moving ahead ? If yes, then chances are that there are some unfounded fears/ phobias that's acting as a deterrent to your growth. Ask yourself  "What's that BIG Fear that holds me back from achieving my dreams and accomplishing my goals ?" Once you get a clarity, start addressing those fears. Either work on turning around these self-limiting thoughts into enabling and empowering ones or connect with a coach, counsellor or therapist for help. Utilise this downtime to work on self and come out stronger than before. 

• Relationships - If you are the types who always cribbed about not finding time to spend with family and/ or friends, then this is the time to work on those important relationships, whether on consolidating the existing ones or mending the broken ones. Find time to sit and make a list of important relationships in your life, gauge where they stand currently and where you like to see them, identify what you can do to improve them. At times, improving relationship is all about saying Sorry or Thank You. So, go ahead and take that first step which could be as simple as making that call to the person.      

• Wellness - No one can deny the importance of (holistic) wellness in coping with crisis like this when life comes to a standstill (literally). An individual who is holistically well does not get (easily) swayed by the events around, especially the sad and the negative ones and also possess  better resilience to deal with the uncertainty around. Emotional Wellness is an essential element of Holistic Wellness and holds importance as it prepares us to adequately filter out the negatively influences that come our way through people and media (print, electronic or online) and most importantly it helps us to express ourselves appropriately, whether for voicing our opinion or using social media in a cathartic way. Writing a journal or starting a blog could help in improving in mental health, if done properly. 

• Goals -Spend this time to seek clarity about life that you always wanted to have. The time is right to pay attention to the goals that you have been postponing for long. In case, you have been wanting to establish goals for life (personal and professional), then this is the right time to do so. And in case, if you have your top 3-5 goals already identified, then this is the time to put some serious thought in creating Action Plan for them. Incorporating contingency like the present crisis would lend more robustness to the Action Plan. Remember, we may not be able to take on-ground action in the present circumstances (forced by the crisis/ turbulence) but at least we would have a ready-to-be-executed plan when we hit the ground running again.

• Growth - Being "self-isolated" and staying at home provides us with another great opportunity of upgrading our skills and competencies. A self-analysis, at this time, can provide us with good insights into areas that need development and the best part is that all this is so achievable because of the interconnected world that we live in. With plenty of online platforms like Udemy, Coursera, edX, Khan Academy, MIT Open Courseware, it's just about selecting the one that meet our needs. Most of the courses offered are not only free and self-paced but also provides the option to seek a certificate for the course (at a cost though) to showcase. I don't think personal/ professional upgradation could get any easier than this.    

• Lifestyle/ Way of Living - Perhaps the biggest learning/ lesson that any big crisis teaches us is not to take life for granted. Somewhere along the way, in our busyness, we tend to get casual and careless about things that ought to get our attention, whether it's about the way we live or the people in our lives. One of the important lessons that we need to learn fast is that life is made better not by acquiring plenty but by learning to live with "essential" and "minimum".   

When time calls for a new you, surprise life with a "better you" !