reboot camp

When my computer slows down, freezes up, or simply doesn't cooperate, I can press CTRL-ALT-DEL and reboot. I lose none of my programs and usually very little data, yet I get a fresh start. Are there any reboot commands for life? In so many areas of my life--personal, professional, financial, technological--I have lost my focus and sense of direction. I've become a person I never thought I could become. I want to find my joy in life again.

So where do I start? I'm afraid, quite frankly, to start to strip away the things that are bad habits and suck joy from my life. What happens if once I've done this, all that's left is...nothing? What if I discover that the problem is being a mom or wife? How do I begin to reboot my life without losing the basic structure and richness that I have?

There's a part of me that just says this: starting right now, live every detail intentionally and in a way consistent with joy. But I am just not there yet. I haven't lost my capacity for joy, but there is a veil that keeps me from recognizing what gives me joy. I'm intrinsically lazy, so doing housework, trying to figure out how to pay bills, doing my job, etc....ack! I feel great contentment and accomplishment and, yes, joy, when those things are done, but I no longer seem to be able to recognize that things need to be done or motivate myself to even start on things.

So I've decided that this summer, I'm putting myself through Reboot Camp. Today's goal was to commit to doing this publicly. My goal tomorrow is to think about process. How do I want to do this? Give myself a goal every day? Several goals a week? Do I want to have goals at all? Maybe I want to come up with a Chris's Ten Commandments for Pulling Herself Together: Thou shalt spend 15 minutes each day tackling a pile of clutter. Thou shalt spend 15 minutes a day intentionally unplugged from technology and experiencing physical life, simply and intentionally. So tomorrow, I think about how to reboot my life this summer.