The Reset Button: Why It’s Important & How to Use it

When I was a kid, Donkey Kong for Super Nintendo was my favorite video game.

I remember sitting entirely too close to the television with my neck craned upwards as I stared mindlessly at the screen.

It was similar to many other video games, in the sense that if you perished during game play, either by falling to your death or brawling with one of the many nefarious bosses, a prompt would appear on the screen.

This prompt would ask if you would like to reset, begin from the latest checkpoint and try again.

And so I would — over and over again.

Lately, life feels oddly relatable to that prompt. Because in some strange, abstract way — it’s really just a perpetual series of reboots, re-spawns and re-calibrations.

So as I sit here — entirely too close to my computer screen — and reflect back on my 28 years on this earth, I think of some of those times I had to push reset, re-calibrate and try again.

Like after being sick with pneumonia for two weeks. Knowing that once I began to feel better, I would have to slowly re-strengthen my atrophied muscles and body after being a bedridden blob for those two miserable weeks.

I also think about the time I was fired from one of first jobs out of college. A job I hated yes, but a job that at the time, offered me some (probably false) semblance of security knowing I no longer had to rely on the generosity of my parents to support me. So I hit reset and found a new job, one I didn’t despise quite as much.

Or after blowing out my knee — twice. The first ruptured both my ACL and meniscus, ending my high school football career and any chance I had of playing in college. So I hit reset and began the painful six month rehabilitation process. Nearly a year later, I tore the same for a second time. But what did I do? I got the surgery to repair it, and hit that damn reset button once again.

And most recently and most fresh in my mind, I reflect on hitting the reset button after bidding farewell to someone I loved, someone I would have done anything for. It’s a strange feeling really, saying goodbye to someone who is still alive and breathing, but perhaps that’s a blog post for another time. And yet, as weird and hard as it was and continues to be, I know it’s something I had to do.

My point? We all get knocked down.

Sure, after some of these tough experiences I suppose I could have remained indefinitely paralyzed, stuck in my self-constructed cocoon of bitterness and wretchedness — but what kind of existence would that offer me?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve wallowed in self-pity plenty of times — for way longer than I should have — but eventually I knew I had to pick myself back up and smash that reset button!

We all have to do this at times do we not?.

In fact, if you really think about it — we do it every morning. Each day brings a fresh start, a new opportunity to start anew.

We re-spawn each morning and try to leave the bad from the previous day behind us. We prepare ourselves for the day ahead as best we can, a day that brings an entirely new set of both challenges and victories.

There may be some new evil bosses to battle, new hurdles to clear or even some sidekicks to partner with along the way — but we keep playing. We always have a choice, and the game isn’t over unless we allow it to be.

So don’t move those fingers from the controller and keep playing at the game of life.

And when it throws you an unexpected curve-ball and knocks you down — hit that reset button, re-calibrate and get your ass back up and try again.