Norton: When it comes time for our own reboot
How many times over the past few years have we found ourselves calling customer service or support because we were having an issue with a phone, device or laptop? How many times have we had to get in touch with our help desk at our company to try and help us troubleshoot a problem?
And it doesn’t matter if we find ourselves interacting with a chatbot that guides us through the potential fix or if we are lucky enough to speak with a live person, the first question they ask is this, “Did you try turning your device off and then on again?” Or “Have you tried to reboot your system?”
For most of us my guess is that the answer is yes, we have tried restarting our phone or computer. But then the agent trying to assist says, “Well let’s just try it one more time while I have you on the phone.” Frustrated, we do as instructed, and after a few minutes of the phone or device rebooting, the problem still exists. Luckily, sooner or later our technology is back up and running, and we are happily back in business.
Again, for most of us, this has become common sense. If we are experiencing troubles, just simply reboot, stop and restart the technology as the first step in self-servicing the problem.
Now here’s another question: Why don’t we know enough to take the same action when something is going on with us personally? When upset, frustrated, angry, disappointed or just plain tired, why don’t we simply reboot ourselves? Hit the stop button for a little bit and then restart.
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It doesn’t always work with technology, and it won’t always work with us as humans. But what if we started there? Giving ourselves a break from the action and the crazy and hectic pace of the race. Taking a pause, giving ourselves and others a period of grace, or maybe just choosing to walk away for a few minutes to see if we can gain a little clarity.
With technology sometimes the machine gets overheated or has too many functions, applications or windows running at the same time. Or maybe the device has been corrupted in some way by being hacked. Well, sometimes as people we get overheated, we are doing too many things at once, or maybe we let someone else’s opinion corrupt our beliefs about ourselves — they have figured out how to hack into our psyche.
As much as it frustrates me when someone asks me if I have tried rebooting my device before I made the call, I also recognize that sometimes it is the simplest thing that we miss or overlook. So, if we find ourselves running hard, multi-tasking more than we ever have, upset at a situation or other people, or just flat-out exhausted, permit yourself to reboot your system, shutting it down for a little bit before restarting.
Although some of us workaholics refuse to take vacations or personal days off, there are plenty of good and healthy reasons that we should. We can all benefit from recharging our batteries, taking a rest, and taking time for self-care — rebooting if you will. Believe it or not, our emails will all still be there when we get back, the projects we left behind will be waiting for us upon our return, and the world as we know it will not have blown up. But our patience levels will have been restored, our outlook will have improved, and maybe, everyone around us seems better than they were before we left.
Whether it’s walking away in the moment to take a pause when things seem out of sorts, catching our breath for a moment, or finally taking a day or two or a week or more off, there is always tremendous value in rebooting our system when necessary.
Have you tried turning off your system for a few minutes and then turning it back on? If so, did you come back refreshed? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com and when we can learn to reboot when we need to, we will see that everything seems a little brighter and that will lead us to a better than good life.
Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager, and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.
