The world around you is out of your control. The facts that govern your life are mostly out of your control. The actions you take are often in response to motivations and needs that are largely out of your control.

What you do control is the story you tell yourself about what it means. You can always choose to paint a picture you believe in.

The evil empire is rising all around, you can see yourself as the rebel waiting for a chance to make a difference.

Falling behind at work looks exactly the same as a restructuring of priorities.

Recovery and exhaustion both look an awful lot like sleep.

Food can be either fuel or a leisure activity.

If you don’t like the facts, give them a different story then ask yourself what’s on the next page.

My mind fights with itself a lot. It’s like playing both colors in chess. Your move as white, then on the other side of the board you counter it with the same ferocity as black. You always win and you always lose.

Sometimes it’s what gives me my advantage. I see a lots of sides to an argument. I’m willing to change my mind quickly. Once I know the answer I go one step further to see if I’m wrong. It helps me when learning and teaching.

Many days it becomes problematic. The war wages and my body can’t keep up. I’m thinking and thinking meanwhile the tension in my shoulders, my teeth start grinding, and I can’t type on the keyboard without my wrists burning.

That’s when I know it’s not about the problem anymore. It’s not about anything that’s wrong with work, with home, with life. It’s just a spiral that my mind has created. It’s worth trying to reset.

• Weightlifting
• Riding a bike
• Walking
• Showering
• Reading
• Writing (with a pen and paper)
• Speaking out loud (preferably with a friend)

All these are my best bets to help the reset take hold. They are also some of the hardest things to convince myself to do. Caffeine and food almost always make it worse but they are almost always my first reaction.