Reset Button.

My brother told me a story about his trip to Kenya.  He lived in a village made up of mud huts and tiny school buildings.  Outside one of these buildings was a chicken sitting on a couch.  Everyday that chicken laid an egg and someone would take that egg and place it in a crate for safe keeping.  One day the chicken hopped off of the couch and spent 24 hours scavenging for sustenance.  The villagers knew it would soon be her time to lay on the eggs to keep them warm.  They prepare the crate of eggs and placed the chicken on top of them.  However, the chicken knew that she had laid her eggs on the couch and would leave the crate for the couch to warm the ghost eggs.  The villagers spent a day moving her from the couch to the crate to no avail.  The chicken had her routine,  she had it ingrained in her brain that the couch was where she needed to be.  The villagers decided they needed to "Reset" her routine.  The dunked the chicken into a bucket of cold water to shock her system.  They then placed her on the crate full of eggs and she remained there for 21 more days.  The chicks hatched and the process started over. 

This story made me think about reset buttons.  I reset my computer on a weekly basis because its computer brain goes into overload and stops working.  I reset my wireless router when it tells me there is no connectivity.  I reset my speedometer when I fill up my tank of gas.  I reset my alarm clock when I decide I need to sleep in for an extra 10 minutes.  But sometimes,  I wish I had a reset button for myself.  Whether it be a physical button or a simple trick of dunking myself in really cold water. I wish could reset my need say the word "Fuck".  Or my desire to eat when I am bored.  Or my aversion to laundry.  All of these things would be easier to change if I could start from the clean slate of a RESET.  But humans are required to be more methodical in their changes.  They have to consciously make a decision to change and practice it. Make a new routine for themselves.  I have to practice not calling that guy who cut me off an "Asshole".  I have to practice doing something else when I am bored so I don't grab a bag of potato chips.  I have to tell myself that sunday IS laundry day so I can wash my clothes before I have nothing to wear.  And I have to do all of these things for a long time before they are officially apart of me and not something I am training my brain to do.  I read once that something becomes routine after repeating the action for 90 days.  That is a long time to decided to do something differently.  However, If it is a change that will make me a better person, 90 days shouldn't seem all that long if compared to a lifetime of having a better/healthier habit. 

Which leads me to my next (and final) point.  My father is starting a diet program today.  He is diabetic and has struggled with his weight his whole life.  In the past 2 years he has had several health scares that have given him a swift kick in the butt.  This program is a shock your system diet. For 20 weeks he will be consuming 5 packets of nutrients.  These packets contain 150 calories and can be combined with whatever he wants to combine them with.  He can mix them with water, milk, or even make a muffin out of them by adding Jiffy mix.  The packets contain all the nutrients he needs in a day and will help him maintain his diabetes while losing weight. Today--He starts a 900 calorie diet.  I have discussed this diet with a few people and they always ask me "Why doesn't he choose to start eating healthier and exercise more?"  I can not answer this question for my father but I can guess the answer.  If I was to tell a gamer that his video games were slowly killing him and if he didn't stop by the age of 55 he would die, How close to the age of 55 would that gamer continue to play video games before he decided he was risking his life? For my dad,  food is his video game.  He has spent 53 years pushing that line and finally has realized he is cutting it too close.  He also realizes that he has had 53 years of practice being who he is and simply changing his habits is not an option.  He decided to RESET his eating button.  He is resetting it by shocking his system for 20 weeks.  He is determined to restart his life a healthier man. 

For this,  I am both proud and moved by my father. And for this, I have begun to look inward to find things I would like to change about myself.  Maybe if I start now--I won't have to go through a boot camp of RESETS when I am 30, or 40, or 50.