Restart – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

One summit after another

How many times have we gone back to square one after a huge effort? It’s happened to me more than once, and I’ve seen it happen to others. I’ve seen two kinds of restart, though: one like Sisyphus’s, and another that comes with all the humility of a lesson learned. I call the first a Sisyphus restart because once we reach the top we roll right back to the start, and what defines it is that we return having learned nothing. The purposeful, or wise, restart has angles and nuances that come to mind today. I regularly see teams and companies that climb past their summits and obstacles thanks to deep reflection and, above all, the natural honesty that defines them. They know their voluntary restarts exist for one reason: to learn, again and again, how to do things better. To take a sport I love, swimming, I’ve always had coaches who sent me back to the wall to dive in again before letting me continue the workout, over and over. How do the restarts we make in life differ, and why are they so powerful when we make them consciously?

The first thing is to see the full picture, the forest. The start of the year, for example, is a golden opportunity to begin something from scratch, or to keep going if things are going well. A good weekend is a chance to reset mind and body and start Monday with fresh eyes, and every day is a great chance to begin again with whatever is on our plate. What matters is knowing whether a restart is even needed. We often have goals we don’t reach however hard we fight, and maybe they simply need to continue, with no restart at all. A true restart comes into play when we have no idea what we’re doing or don’t know where we’re going. So there are restarts, and then there are restarts.

I keep seeing teams return to the starting line because they didn’t make the right decisions from the outset. They prescribe themselves a restart as a result of poor choices and not knowing where they’re headed. On the other hand, some companies have rarely, if ever, gone back to the start. Their discipline and commitment to their purpose make them resilient to whatever comes their way over time. And some, however many projects they take on, keep going back to the beginning again and again, like Sisyphus. Sadly, every time they return to the start for failing to invest the time to set their course, they lose such valuable resources that they eventually disappear and let the competition take their place.

The key to restarting lies in purpose. If we know why we’re in this world and trust that purpose faithfully, every restart we choose will only bring us closer to it. We’ll improve our odds of success and become better people, better teams and better companies. The other key to a good restart is coming back with a fresh mind, new ideas and, above all, the energy to keep going with the spirit of those who know that at some point they’ll reach their goals. That drive to improve is missing in those who restart without purpose. Someone who restarts without purpose already knows they won’t achieve what they set out to do. It doesn’t matter how many times we restart in life. What matters is the learning behind each restart, and building on it to keep taking steady steps guided by the compass that will always lead us: our life purpose.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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