We as human beings enjoy the feeling of starting fresh, but allowing ourselves to hit reset can be anxiety-ridden to say the least. Sure, it feels great to shed the weight of troubles you’ve been carrying with you and have the future wide open, but there’s also the terror that, without a safety net to rely on, you might fail in your efforts. Fresh starts can be scary, but with some preparation and self-development, you can set yourself up for success.
Find motivation within yourself
Think about the times in your life when you’ve found yourself in the zone: truly, completely enveloped in what you’re doing without regard for time or concern for what’s happening around you. Those times when you’re acting out of that innate passion you feel and nothing else. Being in the zone can happen through different activities for different people, whether it’s playing a sport, practicing an instrument, writing, crafting, or any number of things, but you can harness the supercharged concentration and motivation you feel in those moments and use those activities that elicit excitement to help drive you on your way to building a fresh start.
Restructure how you view your regrets
All human beings experience regret in their lives; this regret typically stems from one of two choices made in moments of indecision — action and inaction. People feel remorse for not acting when they now wish they would have and acting when they shouldn’t have, but by analyzing the regret you feel and examining what it stems from, whether action or inaction, you can start to use that regret to inform your choices and help you choose more wisely in the future.
Don’t allow yourself to get lost in thought
This one is a bit easier said than done but is a crucial piece on the road to starting fresh. By trying to suppress certain thoughts we actually end up driving them into the forefront of our minds and spending even more time thinking on them as a result. Ruminating — or thinking deeply on one’s thoughts — is fueled by the individual being alone, so to avoid continually cycling through your thoughts and snowballing problems in your head, find people you can discuss these worries with and surround yourself with them. It can also be helpful to give yourself some time each day to allow your mind to ruminate, especially through meditation, when you can put constructive thought into the problems you’re experiencing.
Get yourself in the right headspace
It’s important to be motivated and focused on progressing, but if your game plan is simply ‘push forward’ with no actual specifics on how to do so, it’s time to reassess how you’re attacking the issue as a whole. You have two different mindsets to help you bring ideas to fruition: your planning (or deliberative) mindset, and your implemental (or action) mindset. By using the correct mindset at the correct time and shifting back and forth when necessary, you can help yourself be conscious of both what you’re thinking and how you’re thinking.