Have you ever used the phrase ‘One Day’? ‘One day I’ll run a marathon’, or ‘One day I’ll sign up for that event’. It seems like there are so many days that we keep waiting for that may never arrive. The phrase ‘One day’ has become an embodiment of the procrastination culture we are so accustomed to. The phrase is made up of two simple words: ‘One’ and ‘day’. But when interchanged, they form two contrasting phrases: ‘One day’ and ‘Day one’ – one signifying a nonchalant postponement and the other beginning afresh. Perhaps when striving for success, we must prioritise returning to ‘day one’, rather than waiting for that ‘one day’.

Success has different interpretations, but at the end of the day, everyone strives for it. Achieving success doesn’t come easy. You are bound to face numerous choices that will either act as hurdles or learning opportunities. No one achieves success overnight, considering the obstacles you face along the journey. These obstacles can be a nasty blow to your goal or may just be a small hindrance that you overcome.

Many factors go into achieving success. The prominent one is having the right mindset towards your goal, which can be influenced by how our brain approaches the world. Everyone’s brain runs on two modes: the default mode and autopilot mode. In his book ‘Stumbling on Happiness”, Daniel Gilbert explains that 46.9% of the time, we are on ‘autopilot mode’, wherein we make decisions without conscious thought.

Autopilot mode is riskier than you may think. It results in us continuously working without reevaluating how effective our strategies truly are. In essence, we fail to look at the bigger picture – the end result we are striving for. Autopilot mode  can lead to making  a series of wrong decisions that inevitably cause future frustration and manifest what economists call the law of diminishing returns. This means despite the growing   amount of effort you put into the process, the output won’t be as  high. When people reach this stage of a slump, they start procrastinating and thinking that ‘One day’ they will finish the task at hand and become successful.

Getting out of this slump means changing your mindset to the ‘default mode’. The default mode is when you deliberately think and actively make decisions. Switching to this mode seems hard, as it is a human tendency to avoid  risks and stay in our own comfort zones. However, once your mindset is changed to default mode, you are more likely to immediately get back on your path to success.

CTRL+ALT+DEL

Changing your mindset is like setting your journey to Day one; pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on your life and your routine thus far. It represents restarting and rebooting your whole outlook towards your goal. You have to completely forget what process you followed previously that led you to that  dead end, because if you end up following a similar approach, it’s obvious you will arrive at the same result, resulting in you losing the last thread of hope you were hanging onto.

There are many ways to come back on track after pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del.

ACKNOWLEDGING AND ACCEPTING IT

Restarting and rebooting doesn’t mean you completely erase everything you have from your memory. You just let go of all the negativity that came when you were in that slump. We humans fear change, and thus hold onto our familiar patterns, even if they cause us pain or lead us nowhere. We must then remember that failure is the stepping stone to success. Embrace all the failures you made previously and accept them. Only then can you improve and produce better results in the future.

WORKING BACKWARDS

Working backward means keeping the end goal in mind, setting smaller goals, and working your way up to your final destination. This allows you to foresee the potential problems you may encounter, as you are thinking ahead. Foreseeing these problems saves you from once again reaching a slump.

IN THE END, IT’S YOUR CALL

Getting stuck on a dead-end or reaching the law of diminishing returns should never dishearten you, because you can always press Ctrl+Alt+Del and restart to adopt a different approach to the problem. There is a high probability that the solution you come up with after rebooting is much better and more efficient. At the end of the day, it’s your choice to decide whether it’s time to restart, or continue to persevere.

My final message to you would then be:

You may either keep dreaming and avoiding problems with the ‘One day’ mindset, or take a step forward (or perhaps backward?) by rebooting and restarting at day one.