Sometimes, life can be a lot to handle.


We can’t just punch all of our problems away, like Chris Redfield does with boulders he doesn’t like.

That’s why on today’s words of wisdom, I wanted to posit the notion of resetting to default, and what that entails. You could think of it as some kind of hybridization of Pavlovian conditioning and scheduling architecture, and it’s a useful tool to get back on track when things go sideways.

In essence, resetting to default is just a way of basically putting yourself in a state of factory reset, so that if you’re too in your own head, maybe exhausted, or feeling generally beat up by life, just take a heavy breather, maybe even a long nap to give yourself some time to reset, and then get back to your defaults; the stuff that makes you, you. For example, in order to trim the fat of my everyday, I usually like to structure it with a series of tasks that I accomplish in a certain order, so as soon I wake up, I don’t even really have to think to myself: How should I start my day?…because I already know exactly how to start my day, as it involves my defaults, the stuff I decided helps to make the best me that I want to be.

Obviously, this is going to be different for every person, but no matter who you are, I have a feeling there are a list of things everyone can do that helps cultivate the person they want to be. I have a decent mix of mind and body focuses, so I start out with exercise, at least a bike ride if I’m really starting from scratch and just need to get outside, and then move to some practice in a competitive game I’m playing (I’m usually always playing Smash Bros, at the very least), and then move onto some more focused mental discipline, usually involving reading some philosophy and taking notes.

If you stop and think about who you really are, what kind of person you want to become, and then translate that into daily activities, you can start to discipline yourself into doing them at the same time everyday when you’re in a good mood and physically prime, and after awhile, not only will you start to feel weird when you don’t do them, but when you might be feeling existential about life, or starting to see red flags indicating you might be on the verge of some kind of depressive state or a heavy sense of ennui setting in, you can just reset to your defaults, catch yourself before you fall, and start becoming who you want to be again. I find it helps keep me on track, and I hope it does the same for you.

Take care of yourself, and others.

~Pashford