When chaos and overwhelm start to overtake your life it’s a chance for you to take a step back and consider your baseline configuration.

In my professional life, I’ve had to deal a lot with computers (I’m not even in an IT field, but I feel like we are all working more with tech these days), ]as much as I could possibly work with computers and not be in a tech industry. One of the things that I’ve come to understand is when a computer or networked device becomes too bogged down or slow or overwhelmed one of the fixes for this is to return the device to what the IT industry calls baseline configuration. This is typically for Windows or PC devices. Apple calls it a factory restore.

Now, you might be thinking “Shannon what the hell are you talking about?” Stay with me.

When your life seems to feel overwhelming or that you have too many things going on it’s so important to take a step back and consider your own baseline configuration.

What are your core values, what are the things that make you tick? What are your true passions? What are the things that are most important to you?

Now, chances are you know exactly what I’m talking about but, for those of you who don’t let’s dig a little deeper.

Baseline configuration for a person is like a phone with no apps. Or a desktop with no programs installed. Each device has a factory configured operating system that includes specific programs but not much else. There’s no customization or special features. It’s as basic as a you can get without building the device yourself.

When you’re applying this concept to yourself or your life in practical terms, a personal baseline configuration would include the basic needs laid out in the bottom two tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - Physiological Needs and Safety Needs.

When life starts to feel super overwhelming, focusing on these principles will help you feel more in control of the chaos around you.

Think about it. When a natural disaster happens (or ahem, a global pandemic), what are the basic things you need to think about to survive? Food, water, warmth, rest, shelter, safety and security. Once these needs are fulfilled and sustainable, you can begin to think about others and their needs, relationships, prestige and self actualization. 

If you’re constantly worried about when your next meal is, your personal safety, or if you will freeze to death, you don’t have the time or the energy to spend finding the meaning of life or being worried that your neighbor has a newer car than you. Right?

If you are feeling overwhelmed at a higher level of the needs pyramid, take a step back and make sure you are grounded in the basics. Doing so gives your mental hard drive the ability to take on tasks that require more focus. This step back will look different for everyone, so, don’t try to compare your baseline to anyone else’s. Remove yourself from that comparison, it just doesn’t serve you.

Once you are secure in your basic needs, once your baseline configuration is established and locked in, you can start adding applications to enhance your life experience.

Here’s another way to look at it:

In science, when conducting experiments, you always have a control group and a group (or multiple groups) that variables are applied to in order to gauge change.

If you continue to add variables, stacking them onto each other, you get further away from your control group and, soon, you will no longer be able to trace the variables to see where the experiment was effected. 

So when you start to feel super overwhelmed, and can’t pinpoint exactly what it is that’s causing you to feel that way, take a step back. Get back to the basics, back to Baseline Configuration of your life. Sit in that for as long as you need to feel refocused and centered on what is really important. 

Obviously, I’m not telling you to neglect your family or relationships, I’m just saying that if you can’t figure out where the overwhelm starts to change you, you won’t be able to take steps to overcome the variables that are causing it. Getting back to the basics will help you figure that out.

So how do you start?

Find your baseline:

Make sure your basic needs are met. Food, water, shelter, physical safety and security. Then answer:

• What are your problems? Brain dump everything you feel is causing you to stress out or be in a perpetual state of chaos.

• Then, what are possible solutions to those problems? Brain storm! Seriously, put everything on this list that you can think of. Do you have a car that keeps breaking down? What if it was hit by a meteor? Problem solved.

Look to the future:

How do you make sure you don’t get back to this place of chaos? Or at the very least, when you do fall back, make sure it’s easier to claw your way back to the surface.

STEP 1: What will you no longer tolerate?

Now that you are back to baseline, what events, behaviors, or tasks will you no longer tolerate. What will you NOT let back into your life? Decide this now, when there is a lull in the chaos and as things get more hectic and chaotic in your life, you will already have the boundaries in place to fall back to.

STEP 2: What are you willing to accept?

I’m not delusional, I am fully aware that there are some things you won’t be able to avoid. But, for the most part, YOU get to decide what you will accept in your life, relationships, home, job, diet, inner voice, ALL THE PLACES.

Does this concept of baseline configuration make sense to you? What still exists after a “factory reset” in your life? Let me know what you are struggling with, I’m here to help, and as always, I can’t wait to cheer you on!

XO,

Shannon