Reset Season
When capacity is limited, the goal isn’t reinvention — it’s returning to a livable baseline.
We just got back from Disney World — an amazing, magical trip to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday (which is actually today—happy birthday!). To say I’m grateful would be a vast understatement. My husband took over planning this trip, and it truly just clicked. The kids have core memories to last a lifetime, and they’re already asking to go back. And notably, they haven’t once said their favorite part was using their tablets on the airplane (which is usually the answer when we ask about trips since tablets are a novelty for us).
Side note: I did not fully appreciate how much you walk at Disney. My body feels like it ran a marathon. I am officially declaring this a recovery week.
I’m also coming home feeling like someone shook the snow globe of my life and now I’m waiting for everything to settle back into place.
This trip was immediately preceded by two straight weeks of being sick — including losing my voice completely. I didn’t think I talked on the phone that much, but losing your voice brings a strange kind of clarity. You realize how much of your day depends on simply being able to speak.
Appointments. Logistics. Making sure the kids aren’t doing something insane. Making sure the dog isn’t doing something insane. Asking a question in a store. Calling anyone. Being understood without repeating yourself three times.
And that’s just regular life.
Trying to grow and run a business without speaking is a whole different can of worms.
It’s hard to feel “on top of things” when you can’t even reliably get the words out.
So yes: Disney was magic. And also: I am behind.
Which brings me to what I actually want to talk about today: resetting.
Resetting in a real, tangible way. The kind that happens when you’re tired, recovering from unseen forces, and — in my case — navigating the ups and downs of a difficult pregnancy. This is my fourth pregnancy, and the first one where I feel like I need to crash at the end (and often in the middle) of every single day.
The Tension Between Freedom and Structure
I love working for myself. I really do. It’s challenging and uncertain and exhilarating — and it’s also, I think, what my family needs right now.
But I also love structure. I function best when there’s rhythm. I don’t need rigidity, but I do need something that holds the week together so I’m not constantly switching between identities and making 800 micro-decisions a day while also trying to run a business and be a person.
And I need purpose outside the walls of my home.
I love being a wife and a mom. I love my little household. But I’ve always needed to give back to the world in ways that extend beyond my own four walls. That’s part of how I feel like myself.
Right now, that’s harder than usual. Because I’m six months pregnant in what has been a really hard pregnancy. And I’m trying to charge forward with my business while being honest about this reality:
In three months, I’m going to give birth.
And after that, I still need to be able to deliver.
So I can’t “catch up” by taking on too much now. I can’t brute-force my way into feeling okay. I can’t sprint my way through a season that is, by design, asking me to slow down.
So what does a reset look like when your capacity is limited and will realistically remain limited for a while?
A Reset Isn’t a Comeback.
We often treat resets like dramatic reinventions: new habits, new schedule, new systems, new personality. That’s probably why so many New Year’s resolutions fail. (Or why I own 1,000 planners with only a few pages filled out.)
But the resets that actually work are simpler.
A real reset helps you return to who you are when you’re functioning well.
For me, that means returning to:
The handful of actions that keep life from feeling like a free fall
The few priorities that actually move my work forward
The minimum structure I need to feel like I’m steering my own life again
In this season, my goal isn’t to do everything. My goal is to get back to a baseline that feels livable.
My Current Definition of “Baseline”
Right now, baseline looks like:
I can see what’s on my plate.
Not in my head, but actually written down on a list.
I have a plan for the next 7 days.
Not an extended plan. Just the next week.
My business has a heartbeat.
A few core actions happen no matter what—because consistency matters more than intensity.
Home isn’t perfect, but it isn’t chaotic.
The basics are handled. The environment supports the people living here.
I have one tiny thread of purpose.
Something outside my to-do list that reminds me I’m more than productivity.
In this season, my reset is about sustainability, consistency, and returning to a baseline that actually means something.
Below is the Workbench Toolkit I’m using this week.
