Reset Your Mind, Reset Your Focus, Achieve More Faster

Like everyone else on the planet, you have only 24 hours a day. How you use them is the key to your productivity, your health, even your sanity.

By Rodger Dean Duncan

Most anyone who’s studied human performance has come across discussions of fixed mindset versus growth mindset.

Without explicitly referring to mindset, George Bernard Shaw offered an interesting perspective. He said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Penny Zenker adds valuable insights with her book The Reset Mindset: How to Get Unstuck, Focus on What Matters Most, and Reach Your Goals Faster.

Zenker, an international speaker and business strategy coach, is a leading expert in the psychology of productivity to eliminate distraction, perfectionism, and self-sabotage to maximize personal performance.

So, how does a Reset Mindset differ from a growth mindset, and what’s its advantage?

Zenker says the Reset Mindset can be seen as the next generation of the Growth Mindset. “While a growth mindset focuses on learning and persistence, the Reset Mindset emphasizes value creation and adaptability to real-time feedback,” she says. “It helps you learn faster and implement changes more quickly, which is vital in today’s fast-paced world where success depends on how swiftly and effectively you can adjust.”

With that definition in mind, how can a Reset Mindset provide a competitive advantage to an individual or an organization?

“A Reset Mindset equips teams to swiftly reevaluate situations, identify new opportunities, and adapt quickly by letting go of outdated approaches,” Zenker says. “This mindset keeps the focus on value creation, enabling faster decision-making and fostering innovative solutions—crucial for staying ahead of the competition. By continually resetting, you stay aligned with the ever-changing demands of your industry and can proactively address challenges before they become major issues.

Zenker says “Reset Moments” turn ordinary moments into make-a-big-difference moments.

“The purposeful act of resetting allows you to shift your state, open your mind, reassess your priorities, and redirect your focus toward the highest point of contribution,” she says. “Every moment holds the potential for greatness when you choose to reset, align with your most important priorities.”

For example, before a tense discussion about a project that’s off track, she recommends taking a Reset Moment. “Get reconnected to finding a solution that benefits both the project and your relationship. By prioritizing listening and collaboration over being right, you transform a potentially contentious conversation into a constructive one, positively impacting both the project’s success and your working relationship.”

The Covid pandemic provided countless opportunities—and necessities—for people to rethink how they conduct business. What does Zenker see as some of the most noteworthy Reset Moments that occurred during the pandemic, and how can that learning help us in the future?