If you feel stuck or unfulfilled, it’s time to make a change. It can seem hard to reset your life to follow your passion, but it’s possible. This post will show you how to start fresh with confidence, take control, and turn your dreams into reality.

Are you thinking about trying something new—perhaps a new career, project, parenting style, or diet?

Do you want to change but don’t know how?

When you find yourself pivoting, do you feel in control, or do changes seem to happen to you unexpectedly?

If you’re looking to reset your life, grab an extra cup of coffee and keep reading!

What is a Life Reset?

A life reset is a change you make in at least one area of your life that involves starting over or beginning something new.

This can be anything significant to you—and I truly mean anything—such as:

• Attempting a new skill or hobby
• Moving
• Life transition or change in family life
• Starting a passion project
• Change in health status
• Trying a completely new look
• Spiritual and emotional resets, such as refreshing a relationship
• Mental resets, including mindset shifts
• Financial circumstances

We all face life resets at some point in our lives.

Reseting Your Life Can Be Empowering and Lead to Self-Improvement

So the key question is—How do you handle these resets?

Are you embracing these changes and seeing them as opportunities? Or do you feel overwhelmed and scattered?

There’s no shame if you identify with the latter—I’ve been there many times myself. Instead of proactively shaping events, you might find yourself constantly reacting to whatever life throws at you. But if that’s where you are, don’t worry. With the right strategies, you can learn to handle any life reset like a pro.

While resets may seem daunting, I promise they don’t have to be.

They’re actually quite manageable and can be incredibly empowering. Think of each reset as a step closer to doing your passion work.

I’ve navigated numerous personal and professional pivots over the years, including many of the types listed above. My level of control has varied with each reset. Sometimes I’ve seen changes coming and planned accordingly, making proactive choices along the way.

Other times, life has thrown unexpected changes my way, and I’ve had to adapt on the fly—sometimes gracefully, sometimes less so.

Know Your Mission Before You Reset Your Life

You are probably wondering: How do I reset my life?

This is crucial. Before making any life change, you need to know your mission—you must align what you want to do with why you want to do it.

At minimum, you need to get clear on what you’re passionate about and what your purpose is.

Your passion represents the “what”—the actions you’ll take. Your purpose is the “why”—your reason for doing it.

Let me share an example from my research background. When scientists write grant proposals, we outline our planned research. To receive funding, our ideas and objectives must meet the funding organization’s criteria.

Each grant includes a section called “specific aims” that lists the exact objectives and research questions we plan to address. Grants often get rejected when the proposed experiments don’t match these aims—when the planned work won’t actually answer the research questions. This is exactly what we want to avoid when planning life resets.

How to Create a Personal Mission Statement to Support a Life Reset

Beyond your passions and purpose, you’ll want clarity on your values and vision. But for now, let’s focus on formulating your mission.

Your mission could be specific to one area of your life, or it could be broader—spanning across everything you do.

Understanding your mission and aligning your what with your why creates the framework for every major life decision, including resets.

This alignment helps you determine whether a reset is necessary and, if so, how to approach it.

Identify your passions

To explore the passion part of your mission, let’s consider what truly interests you. These guiding questions will help uncover your passions:

• What brings you joy?
• Are there skills you have intentionally developed?
• What sparks your curiosity?

Let me share a personal example. I’m deeply passionate about critical thinking, and this has shown up consistently throughout my life. My career has centered on research and data analysis. I love curating information, identifying trends, and recognizing patterns. Even in my free time, I’m drawn to puzzles and logic games. This analytical mindset carries into my consulting work, where problem-solving is essential.

What’s the recurring theme in your life?

This reflection process will reveal your true passions.

Find your purpose

Now, let’s work on the purpose part of this equation. Think about the things that add meaning to your life.

Consider the reason you’re looking for a change.

• What do you like to do for others?
• What outcomes are you looking for?
• What’s at stake if you don’t achieve these outcomes?

Your purpose is something that affects your decision-making beyond your personal or financial gain.

Start with something you want to do or regularly do in your life and ask yourself why you do it. Why is it important to you?

Take that answer and, like peeling an onion, keep asking “why?” Layer after layer, repeat this process until you strike gold. You’ll be amazed at how deep you can go—and your final answer might surprise you. I encourage you to try this exercise.

If you have little kids, you know how they ask “why?” over and over until you’re ready to say, “because I said so!” Next time you feel that frustration, remember—this is exactly the kind of deep questioning I’m asking you to do now.

Those little ones of yours are actually showing you critical thinking in action. In my case, where critical thinking is my passion, this process of asking “why?” led me to discover my purpose: bringing freedom and improving the mental well-being of mothers like me.

I truly believe in the power of asking “why?” When we strengthen critical thinking in mothers, we become better equipped to make decisions and pursue passion projects in ways that bring us freedom and joy.

When you combine my passion and my purpose, the mission for Solve for Mom is to help mothers take action on their big ideas through purpose-driven planning

A career pivot as part of your life reset

Let me share an example using a fictional character named Ambitious Amber.

She’s a mom who has spent several years training and working as a physical therapist, finding great satisfaction in helping patients recover their health. While she loves her work, she dreams of spending more time outdoors with her young children. Photography has always captivated her—she avidly follows photography blogs and Instagram accounts, and she loves reading books.

Her passions clearly lie in photography and nature, while her values center on family time. Her purpose remains focused on improving people’s physical health and wellbeing.

A potential pivot for Amber could combine these elements: she could photograph and author books that teach families and children how to maintain physical health through outdoor exploration.

A Purpose-Driven Life Reset

While this process requires deep thinking, it’s quite doable. I encourage you to apply it now as you plan your next life reset.

Once you’re clear on your purpose and passions, ask yourself: What specific steps will lead to my desired outcome?

You have to make sure that what you plan to do aligns with your why and your objectives.

If they don’t align, you’ll need to reset your project or goals. This means stopping activities that don’t add value to your life and focusing more on things—even completely new things—that support your mission.

In my Solve for Mom podcast, for example, I discuss life crafting, skill building, and high-performance strategies. These specific approaches use critical thinking to help you pursue passion projects that bring freedom and joy to your life.

Consider Amber’s situation: She’s offered a promotion in her physical therapy job. With a clear mission, she can make this decision confidently. If financial security is a priority, she might accept the promotion and pursue photography as a secondary passion—something I’ve done many times myself. Alternatively, she might decline if the role would take too much time away from her family and mission.

I hope you can now see how aligning your actions and passions with your purpose helps you confidently decide whether—and what—to reset.

Pause here!

I strongly recommend pausing here to complete the passion and purpose work first. Once you’re clear on those elements, then continue reading the rest of this article.

Resetting Your Life Requires Creative Thinking

Another crucial aspect of life resets is learning to think creatively and outside the box. This means approaching problems from fresh angles to find innovative solutions.

I’m a scientist. Many people assume scientific research is purely analytical, it actually requires significant creativity, especially in laboratory work. We build custom assays to measure our targets, constantly troubleshoot experiments, and analyze unexpected results to determine if they’re genuine findings or artifacts.

Resets are similar to these experiments in our lives—they demand creativity.

Creative thinking becomes essential during times of change because the path forward isn’t always clear. You’ll need to brainstorm or mind map through various scenarios, especially for unfamiliar territory. Feel free to be unorthodox in your approach—within legal bounds, of course!

Consider new skills, locations, people, tools, or methods that could support your life reset.

This process can feel uncomfortable. Take my experience with this podcast—as someone who values privacy and had never used social media, this was a major reset. I spent years exploring alternatives, bouncing ideas off my husband. I kept returning to the idea of sharing my voice publicly—through a blog, videos, or podcasting—but repeatedly told myself, “I can’t do this.”

Eventually, every other option fell away, and because this aligned perfectly with my family and world vision, I pushed through the discomfort to launch the podcast. Even now, creating episodes remains challenging.

Looking at our hypothetical friend Amber, she also embraced creativity in her reset. She pursued new skills in photography and writing, built networks with families and fellow photographers, and found innovative ways to monetize her passion. She creatively transitioned from a conventional career to an unconventional one, designing a business that let her prioritize family time by including her children in her passion project.

Most Life Resets Are Reversible or Replaceable

Let me share something important with you. When these pieces come together, it feels magical. You understand your mission, you’ve found your path forward, and you feel confident because you know your options.

Here’s a crucial point when you reset your life: most changes are reversible or replaceable. Knowing that a change doesn’t have to be permanent has given me confidence with every pivot I’ve made.

Yes, it’s a life reset—a big change—but it’s rarely set in stone.

Of course, there are exceptions: having a child, depleting your savings, or completely demolishing a house. But even with a house demolition, you’re typically replacing it with something better—a new home or a more purposeful use of the land.

While there’s always a period of adjustment, you can usually change course or pivot again if needed.

Think about it: If you choose a new career, who says you must stick with it forever? If you change your hairstyle or paint your house, these things can be modified with time. Your hair grows back, and walls can be repainted.

When I started homeschooling my children, I felt nervous. But I knew we could always switch to public school if needed.

Consider Amber’s potential move to Southern California for better photography opportunities and hiking trails. If that didn’t work out, she could always reassess her family’s location.

I’m not suggesting you make decisions carelessly. Rather, I want you to know that if something isn’t serving your mission, you can pivot again—because the ultimate goal is living in your purpose.

Essential Mindset Shifts to Guide Your Mental Resets

These three approaches and mindsets will be critical for how you reset your life. While resets can feel jarring and uncomfortable, remember that major changes often lead to positive outcomes.

Take motherhood, for example—it was a major identity reset for all of us, redefining us in countless ways. You’ve already successfully navigated that significant change.

In scientific research, going back to the drawing board is normal—we do it routinely. We view it as progress because ruling out one path helps narrow our focus to more promising directions. It simply means we’ve identified an approach that didn’t serve us.

I want you to embrace the idea that you can handle change while staying open to future adjustments.

With these strategies, you’ll approach any reset from a position of strength. The key is to begin by aligning your passion with your purpose.

APPLE PODCAST | SPOTIFY

How Do I Reset My Life?

PICK ONE TIP TO TRY TODAY

• 🔲 Create your mission statement by combining your passion and purpose
• 🔲 Identify one area in your life where you might want to a reset, pivot, or shift
• 🔲 Consider new skills, locations, people, tools, or methods that could support your reset

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