Back at it again with a #MondayMantra – cos it’s Monday, and we need a Mantra to start this week strong amiright??? (Right.) If you’re in the CURowd and caught (hey hey – thoughts on our new name for our rosy lil’ squad/tribe/gang/community/whatever the heck ya wanna coin it??? 😉 ), this message is a familiar (but hopefully relevant) one. Because sometimes, the thing we must do most is reset, refocus, restart.
Last week was a blur of a hot mess express over at CUR headquarters – meaning, I was having a near-meltdown at our kitchen table, surrounded by too many papers with too many to-do’s. And as Friday went on and I was *attempting* to get wrapped up for the weekend, the unthinkable happened…the blinking computer screen of death.
Hopefully, you have no idea what I’m talking about.
Cos it’s scary, and it sucks.
But not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES in the past year, I have experienced said blinking screen. The past few times, it turned out to be a manufacturer malfunction on that specific piece of hardware (super), so it called for a constant back-and-forth to Best Buy and consistently sending it out to Kentucky for service before they came to the conclusion that I just needed to purchase a brand new computer (super. squared). This was months ago, so now that I’m on a brand spankin’ new-ish laptop, you can maybe imagine the wicked fast rush of not-so-good emotions (+ swear words, oops) that came to me the second my screen started freaking the freak out *again*.
…No bueno, mi amigos.
Fast forward to the end of this weekend, and I was thiiiiiiis close to what I thought was malfunction numero dos. I had been bopping about all weekend long (we had our gender reveal party for friends/family – woohoo!), and was understandably #spent by the time Sunday night was rolling around. Enter, the Sunday Scaries.
I was feverishly trying to upload all of my #UnboxingsWithJamie Stories on Instagram (have ya caught ’em yet???), when suddenly, the sound on my phone just stopped working.
No sign ahead of time, no hardware issue, no other problems ever – it just decided it didn’t want to play sound or record sound. I was about to just call it quits and literally “try again tomorrow,” when I realized it was like Part Two of the Installment of the Week’s Lesson:
“Reset, Refocus, Restart.”
When my laptop went bezerk, my gut instinct was to panic – but some semblance of grace deep down served as a friendly + v. necessary reminder: Shut it down. Hit restart.
So simple, but so often forgotten…and so needed.
I hadn’t *actually shut down* my laptop in God only knows how long – so it’s no surprise that it decided to end the week on a spastic note. Similarly with my phone, I never actually turn it off – it just alternates between being on and in use, and on and charging up. None of my devices ever get a friggin’ BREAK. They just gogogo as fast + as much as I make them. Poor things.
Once I closed out the 52 and then some tabs I had open and actually shut down…wouldn’t ya know, the screen calmed down. At first I was nervous; I initially tried re-opening everything immediately upon restart, and there was a flicker or two that kept me on edge. So I figured I should give it a rest (good thought, E) and stop opening every tab and its mother. I should treat my tech the way we *should* treat oureslves – with grace + with due rest. And wouldn’t you know – it hasn’t flickered or blinked or flashed scary lines of colorful death since. (Bless up).
Similarly with my phone – I was on Multitasking Madwoman mode. I was trying to upload Stories, watch Stories, record video, like pictures, check my email and answer texts all at the same dang time. Like, who in their right mind…?!?
So I stopped.
I exited out of everything.
I gave it a hot sec to regroup. And when I came back to it – lo and behold, THE SOUND WORKED.
Just like technology wasn’t programmed to be “on” forever, neither were we.
And for as much as we think we can power through, we can’t power through without ever powering off.
Instead of aligning our sails towards hustle island, we need to RE-align to an island of actual *peace + quiet*, to effectively regroup and get back to best self.
Reset, Refocus, Restart.
As much as we may want to be Superwoman – and for as much as we may think we ARE Superwoman sometimes – we can’t be Superwoman all the time. Because just like Superman needs to be Clark Kent, we too need to de-cape and chill the heck out sometimes so that we can be even MORE super the next time around.
We’ve gotta let ourselves reset.
Then realign with our purpose (our WHYs).
And refocus on our goals.
Before hitting restart and getting back to business as usual.
- Reset
- Realign
- Refocus
- Restart
Great things take time – give yourself that time this week to reset, realign, refocus, restart strong.
What can you do to Reset, Refocus, Restart this week strong?
Set an intention + put it out there, girlfriend. Make it happen this week.
P.S. Want more Monday Mantras? Gotcha covered.
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