Uncovering the Power of Starting Anew: Lessons Learned from Going Back to Basics

During my junior year of college, I found myself navigating the unforgiving terrain of academic pressure, social estrangement, and personal dissatisfaction. Each day felt like a heavy burden with the looming deadlines of large studio projects and my intense dissatisfaction with my reflection in the mirror as my body carried more weight than I was accustomed to. Simultaneously, the once familiar comfort of two important friendships had dwindled into silence that exacerbated my growing sense of isolation.

Photo by Liana S on Unsplash

Amidst this profound sense of loneliness and insecurity, I reached a turning point during a visit back home. Stepping onto the cold, textured surface of the black and white scale in my parents' bathroom, the stark number glaring back at me labeled me overweight. In that moment, a surge of resolve pulsed through me, propelling me to confront and conquer the challenges that had consumed me up to that point.

As a 20-year-old, I had not yet read any self-help books and, thus, had very limited knowledge of how to change my behavior. Past attempts at change had failed, but this time I was starting my journey with a higher degree of seriousness and much lower expectations for myself. I wasn’t going to commit to an extravagant plan of redemption. I was simply going back to the basics.

By going back to the basics, I mean prioritizing fundamental human needs such as sleep, nutrition, water intake, and movement. Since entering college, I have slowly abandoned any good habits I once had regarding sleep, eating, and exercise, eventually getting to the point where my whole life was off-balanced. The very foundation of my life was broken, and I needed to fix it.

Since I am a morning person, I decided that I needed a solid morning routine to set myself up for the rest of the day. I knew, though, that to be able to wake up, I had to have a good night’s sleep, and I am someone who needs about 7 hours of sleep to have a good, productive day. Considering that I had to work at 8:00 a.m., I set my bedtime at 11:00 p.m. so I could wake up at 6:00 a.m. and have 2 hours to implement a morning routine.

During those 2 hours in the morning, I committed myself to drinking one glass of water, working out for 20 minutes, cleaning up my bedroom, and having a solid breakfast before stepping outside the door. Before clocking in at my job, I had a good start on all my basic needs, fueling my motivation to further fulfill these needs throughout the day.

However, I had no strict rules for myself. I went through my day normally until 9:30 p.m. when I packed up my stuff, went home, prepared myself for bed, and was in bed by 10:00 p.m. reading a book until I fell asleep.

Here is my schedule for that period:

Morning routine

6:00 am - 6:30 am | Wake up and drink a glass of water

6:30 am - 6:50 am | Workout

6:50 am - 7:40 am | Shower, eat breakfast, pick up house

7:40 am - 8:00 am | Go to work

Evening routine

9:30 pm - 10:00 pm | Get ready for bed

10:00 pm | Be in bed and read

11:00 pm | Be asleep

I stuck to this routine every weekday for three months. I successfully warded off the temptation to sleep in and stay out late with my peers despite invasive thoughts that my attempt at a better life would be fruitless. Honestly, I didn’t expect much to change, but I so craved structure that I just did these things to regain some resemblance of stability.

Eventually, I started to notice changes.

First, I noticed I had more time for schoolwork. When I started these routines, I was afraid that making myself go to sleep at 11:00 every night would cause me to fall behind. I truly believed I needed those nighttime hours to do well at school. I was wrong. Rested and refreshed, I applied a whole new level of focus to my work and started completing projects well before the deadline. I distinctly remember finishing a big studio project very early one night, before 8:00 p.m. I sat there staring at my work for a minute, slightly stunned by the time. Then I went home, packing up my stuff while my colleagues sipped on their first of many cups of coffee, heads bowed over their desks, sluggishly tracing plans and perspectives.

I knew, of course, that sleep is important for enhanced performance in every aspect of life, but this was the first time I put it into practice and paid attention to the results, not that I needed to look very hard. The impact of getting enough sleep was enormous and swift.

I also lost extra weight. Before starting this new routine, hour-long workouts seemed daunting. So, I chose a time limit that I knew I could stick to consistently. By the end of three months, I had lost 12 pounds.

By the end of April, I was on the precipice of summer break and my context changed, bringing an end to my routine. The demands were different and my needs were different, but I learned something very important over those three months that I have since applied many times since: it is OK and even necessary to take a few steps back in order to move forward.

I didn’t want to go back to basics at that time. I wanted to be excelling in every area of life, and focusing on fundamentals felt bad, like I had failed at life and was now behind all my peers in every meaningful way: relationships, school, and personal development. What actually happened, though, is that straightening out my basic needs propelled me forward, and at a much faster pace than I expected.

Unfortunately, the forward momentum would slow and even cease. Years after I graduated, my husband and I were facing the end of a company we started together, feeling untethered in an abyss of financial and professional uncertainty. We knew what we had to do, though, and we threw ourselves into resetting our lives by going back to the basics.

It worked like a charm, cleaning up our lives enough for us to both land jobs and start pursuing projects and further education in the fields we love.

I have since had to use this technique and I expect to have to use it again. Life is full of ups and downs, and I know more unfortunate circumstances are on the way. Now and for the rest of my life, though, I have a strategy for dealing with them. By slowing down and resetting the fundamentals, I think I can overcome almost anything.