Embrace the Power of a Reset for Seasons of Change

Reset. It seems that life is filled with reset opportunities. 

A reset is great if the game you're playing is beating you. Or, if your Wi-Fi is wonky. Or, if you're one of THOSE people who constantly hits the snooze button.

Unfortunately, a reset ISN'T so great when you are in the middle of a project you've worked on for hours, and your computer freezes. And, of course, you forgot to save your work because you were so in the zone. In a minute...in a minute. OH NO!

Yet, I am thankful for the different RESETs nature gives us..

Daylight Savings Time (which I love)

Standard Time (which I don't)

Winter to Spring to Summer to Fall to Winter

Day to Day. Week to Week. Month to Month. Quarter to Quarter. Year to Year.

Then there are those other "natural" resets that don't feel so natural. They certainly aren't joyful.

Deployment. Separation. Divorce. Death.

Yet each one of these requires a reset as well.

A Song for the Season

As I'm writing this, lyrics from a song by Joni Mitchell run through my head. "It's comin' on Christmas. They're cuttin' down trees. They're puttin' up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace. Oh! I wish I had a river. I could skate away on."

This time of year is filled with introspection for me. I look back over all that has gone right and wrong during the past 11 months. I wonder what I could do better, different, not at all. I think about the projects I've moved to the next year, and I celebrate the wins of this one. I catalog the friends I've made, the ways I've grown emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I wonder about tomorrow. I hope. I plan. And yes, I fret a little.

Wherever you are in the seasons of life, I can guarantee you this - a ReSet is coming.

The real trick is to have a heart that is prepared for the change that will come. So, today, I'd like to offer you a few of my 'ReInvention Ninja' tricks strategies. Hopefully, they will serve you in this natural season, and in some of the naturally unnatural ones to come.

A ReSet is Natural and Needful

"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." Genesis 8:22 NIV

I am not a huge fan of winter freezes, ice and snow. But I grew up understanding it was necessary to kill off all the nasty bugs that would invade our yard.

A reset kills off the 'nasty bugs' you've allowed to live in your space. All of those poor attitudes, thought patterns, relationships, habits, reasons and excuses get exposed for inspection. This is your chance to pull the weeds, cultivate the flowers, put some weed killer and bug killer in place. It's a season of life to be nurtured and to step away from those things that are killing us slowly. It's a time to prepare the soil of your heart and mind for the fresh growth, new adventures and strengthening what is going right in your world.

A reset gives two things...an end and a beginning. If we don't have both, we can't appreciate the rhythm of life. Embrace the beauty of and the consistency of change. And because we know that winter is coming, make a few preparations.

Prepare for ReSet

"Ants--they aren't strong, but they store up food all summer." Proverbs 30:25 NLT

This may seem a little like "WHATEVER! HOW CAN YOU PREPARE?" but after living an ever-shifting life over the last few years, I've learned that the preparation is in the ATTITUDE. Endeavor to live a life that makes plans loosely. We only have a limited bit of control, even when we like to think we are in control of everything. 

The ant works in the season of work, anticipating in its little ant brain that the time will come when it can't work. Without question, most of us know when we will want some down time. Plan around it. If you want consistency in life and business, you must create it. 

My husband worked construction for a lot of the early years of our marriage. In the Panhandle of Texas, it was feast or famine. When the weather was good, he worked all the time. When it wasn't, we just about starved. And, guess what, Christmas comes at the same time every year - in the winter, in the ice and snow, and during a time of not much work availability. You would think that I would have learned to prepare for the lean times, but it always felt like I was playing catch up. We got better at it, but it was hard.

As a work from home woman, you have times that are lean and times that are abundant. There are days you feel rule the world, and days it feels like the world is using you for its favorite toy to kick around.

Creating a definite strategy to organize your schedule helps to take some control over what is out of our ultimate control.

Be like the ant.

When You Didn't See It Coming

Blindsided. Have you ever been there? When all of your plans came crashing down in a blubbery mess at the side of the chair asking, "Why, God?"

Yeah. I've been there more than once. I have a chair that has plenty of tear stains hidden in the woven tapestry.

Death. Divorce. Sickness. Separation from loved ones. Financial devastation. Do any of these sound like your story?

Life has a way of interjecting itself into the middle of our plan, doesn't it? I mean, when Richard came home with a broken arm and a cancer diagnosis, I was waiting for him to get home so that I could leave for a 3 day seminar.

When he was doing better and I tried to relaunch my sales business, and he came down with kidney failure, RESET.

When we had finally made it home after nearly a year of living in hotels and were enjoying our Christmas celebration with friends, and he developed septic shock and had to be life-flighted to Dallas...RESET.

When we left our home of 20+ years and moved to a small one-bedroom apartment, didn't know anyone, and had to figure out what to do now that we were starting all over again after 36 years of marriage...RESET.

So, maybe I'm a little dramatic. But what I want you to know is that I get it. And authentically speaking, there have been a lot of days just this year that I've hit the reset button more than once. Like I said, RESET is an attitude before the action.

Update Post 2020

I published the original article in 2015. Just 5 years later, my darling Richard flew to the arms of Jesus. Yes. Another reset. And refreshing this at the end of 2024, there have been many opportunities to re-evaluate and pivot. 

Push the Button

And then God answered, "Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. This vision-message is a witness to what's coming. It aches for the coming-it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time. Habakkuk 2:2-3 MSG

You may feel a reset coming. It's time to prepare. Be brave enough to look inside for the reasons your heart and mind feel scattered and out of focus. 

A reset isn't a failure. It's a chance to start over.

This is your time of metamorphosis. This is when you are changing from who you are to who you are meant to become. Push the reset button. Here are a couple of tips to help you get ready for the move into your next season.

Originally published December 2015. Updated December 2024