Is A Reset Required?

Last week, I wrote about having the kind of week that can only be described as ‘a week of sorts’. In the workplace this can be a week when everything that can go wrong does or it’s the week when everyone needs you and then you get yet another call when you thought it couldn’t get any more complicated.

At a national level, this could be a week of chaos, natural disasters, political and shocking headlines. Knowing fully well that every ‘week of sorts’ passes and gives way to another new and hopefully better week, our goal is to get through the ‘week of sorts’ relatively unscathed and be ready to make the most of the new opportunity and gift of another week.

The three tips from last week’s post were: assess the situation clearly, manage your emotions and plan for the future.

In today’s post I want to build on that by encouraging you to ask if a hard reset is required as part of the strategy for moving forward.

Any one who has dealt with technology would have had situations when they felt the need for a hard reset or a return to factory setting. Often this is the easiest, although sometimes painful way to resolve an issue as you will need to rebuild from the ground up.

This week, while setting up my new camera, I had moments when I simply restored a setting because it got too complicated for me to continue the configuration. This helped me to get back to square one to continue the process.

Getting back to square one is a phrase that stuck with me after my driving instructor told me about its origin. I only knew it meant to start again from the original start point. He said ‘back at square one’ derived from radio commentaries in the 1930s when commentators mentally divided the pitch into numbered grids to help them paint the picture of the position of the play.

Square one was the position in front of the home team’s game and following a goal kick by the home team, the play was described as being back at square one.

A reset is akin to getting back to square one to restart and continue the game of life. What does your square one look like, what will you need to do to have a factory reset, who do you need to support you in this process? These are all questions we can ponder after we have been through the ringers.

For some, getting back to square one may have to do with your faith or reconciling with your family members. It may be acknowledging your grief, past struggles and failings so you can start to heal from them. Getting back to square one might require you to finally open all those bills you’re in denial over or look for an alternative job. It might be accepting an addiction you have failed to own.

Ultimately getting back to square one or doing a hard reset can be the positive start to what must be done to get back on track and maximise life. It is about going back to the basics and addressing the foundation issues before continuing the work of rebuilding.

This week, my nation – Nigeria – will be voting in a new president and other leaders after a long drawn out and hard fought battle. Sadly the candidates, parties and particularly their supporters haven’t always fought a clean fight and relationships are fraught at best and millions will be disappointed regardless of who wins.

Any new leader will not be everyone’s favourite but we have a choice to keep the arguments and animosity going or to focus on the next task of holding all new leaders accountable.

Our hard reset as a people and nation shouldn’t be based on religion or ethnicity because in reality, there are only the oppressed versus the oppressors who come in all shapes, religions, colours and languages.

We need a hard reset to continue the work of building an enviable nation. It must include addressing the ‘fault lines’ that could cause future eruptions in our nation and us refusing to be pawns in the games of those who don’t have the best interests of our nation at heart – locally, nationally and globally.

Thanks for reading my post. Have an awesome week. Here’s to all the hard resets that we need to do.