Are You Stuck in a Rut? 5 Tips to Break Free
Getting stuck in a rut makes everything more challenging.
For one, if you are as short as me, you can’t see anything from the rut perspective.
For two, it’s hard to go your unique way when the rut demands its direction.
Have you ever felt stuck in a rut?
I got so stuck that I yelled at my situation. It didn’t help anything. I didn’t even feel better because I yelled.
But I was so stuck that I couldn’t see a way out, and I didn’t know what else to do.
UGH!
There have been times in my life where I got myself stuck. I made a bad choice . . . or a really bad choice . . . and I was caught in a rut of my own design. But when that happened, I knew (even if it was only that deep down, not quite comfortable feeling) why I was where I was, and I knew that the way out was to make better choices.
This time, it wasn’t me. This time, my rut stuck moment was out of my control, and I felt completely out of control because of it.
UGH!
Yelling wasn’t helping, so I threw up my hands in surrender.
“I’m stuck in a rut.”
When I said it aloud, my brain, in all of its random gloriousness, decided to provide me with a Neal Diamond remix:
Stuck in a rut,
‘ain’t no big surprise
I fell in the rut
Following all of their lies
And on it went.
Somehow, that moment of ridiculousness released me from my rut.
Because I let go, even for a moment, and in that moment, I created space for something unexpected.
Unexpecteds are great bridges to possibilities.
#QuoteOfTheDay
Unexpecteds are great bridges to possibilities.
– Kathryn Lang
Why Do We Get Stuck In A Rut?
I have never been on a worn path that didn’t have a few ruts at some point along the way. I’ve started to notice that the easier part of the paths tend to remain smooth and well worn evenly. But when you get to the tough parts, the ruts appear.
Maybe the challenge has something to do with the ruts. Maybe the rough areas are more prone to circumstance-dictated ruts.
Whatever the reasons, ruts happen.
Fear of Change
We do what we do because it’s familiar. The rut is created by habitual activities in the same way, the same place, the same time… While something different may be the desired outcome or goal, we stay where we are because change is scary, and our uncomfortable place is more comfortable than change because at least it’s known.
Overwhelm
Too much is too much, and it keeps us locked in a pattern of much doing because we don’t know what else to do. Overwhelm creates confusion, and confusion creates a no or can’t mindset. Overwhelm is why so many people order the same thing at the restaurant – habit. Overwhelm is why we scroll through the channels instead of choosing a single show. Overwhelm is why we tell ourselves to put it off and deal with it another time. TOO MUCH!
External Circumstances
It happens to us and not because of us. A job loss. A health crisis. A financial setback. A change in the market. Or yes, a tornado falling on your house or the insurance company doing you wrong (or at least not making you whole like they agreed . . . IN WRITING . .. rant over). We get caught in a moment of someone else’s making and we have no way out.
Laziness
Sometimes, we don’t like where we are, but we don’t dislike it enough to take intentional actions to move. We WANT to be out of it, but we don’t want to have to do anything to be out of it. If a magic lamp or fairy godmother could make it happen, it would be okay. But don’t ask us to DO anything.
These are only a few of the reasons that we can end up in a rut. No matter how we get there, once we get there, if we want to move, then we have to find our way out.
5 Ways Out of Stuck
Do you want to break free from your rut moments? If you are willing, then you are able. It doesn’t even require a grand, sweeping, massive overhaul. One small step, one little bit, one bite-sized shift can lead to that giant leap – and suddenly, because those little bits begin to add up, suddenly you are free.
1. Identify the rut.
You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge (no matter how much you want it or how much you try). Identifying the rut is crucial to creating your way free.
Ask yourself:
- Where am I stuck? Look for those routines, times of day, or habitual activities that consume your resources – and yes, that includes time.
- Why am I stuck here? And keep asking why until you hit a raw nerve.
- What is holding me here? Be even more raw about the realities that are holding you in the place of stuck.
Once you have it, write it out. Name your rut and then demand the change.
2. Shift Your Perspective
You will find what you are looking for – and you will find it easier and easier to find the more you look. If you want to get out of the rut, stopping looking at the depth of the rut and the strength of the rut and start looking for the off-ramp. The easiest way to shift perspectives is to change the routine:
Breaking the routine frees the imagination and imagination makes room for you to move.
3. Align With Your Heartseed
Your heartseed is the fundamental foundation of who you are uniquely designed to be. It was planted in you at the beginning of time, and it never changes – no matter the season, the circumstances, or the demands around you. You are you. Hard stop.
But the world invests a lot trying to cover up your uniqueness. If we all lived out our unique design, we would flip this world upside right once and for all, and the world can’t stand for that.
Take time to define your heartseed so you can be sure to align with your heartseed, and then ask yourself:
- Does this action align with my unique purpose?
- Is this action producing Spirit fruits?
- Is this action driven by fear, or is it Faith Forward?
When you know you, it is easier to find your unique way out of whatever ruts you get stuck in. More importantly, knowing you keeps you from falling in the ruts to begin with.
4. One Small Little Bit
Action breaks inertia. In other words, when you do something, it’s easier to do something else because you have the momentum moving you along.
Sometimes, you don’t need a massive breakthrough. You just need a little bit of movement.
Ask yourself:
- What is something I can do in five minutes that moves me in the direction I want to go?
- What is one thing I can do right now – where I am with what I have – that will set a foundation for tomorrow?
- What is a piece of that big project I can tackle in this moment?
The little bits add up. And the little bit of movement will break an avalanche of momentum. When you take that one step, the next one becomes easier.
5. Let It Go
The more you try to hold on to something, the more you wear yourself out. And if you are holding on to something, you aren’t in a position to receive anything else.
Let that settle in for a moment.
If you are holding on to the things you have right now – good, bad, indifferent, big, small, medium – then you will not be able to open your hands and take what is being offered.
Make a list of five things you are holding on to right now – could be activities, goals, traditions (ouch!) or things around the house.
Until you make the choice to move out of your rut – until you are willing to let go of that situation and be free – you will be stuck in a rut.
You Are Not Meant For Stuck
You are called to live extraordinary – abundantly, exceedingly overflowingly so. It’s just the world works overtime trying to convince us that the extraordinary is the lie.
“Here. This rut is the truth. You will be so much more content if you will just settle for it.”
TRUTH BOMB: It’s not!
Don’t buy the stuck in the rut lie.
Dare to fly.
You are made in purpose and for a purpose that is unique to your heartseed. Even if you don’t see it right now, or you don’t understand how to get there, GOD DOES!
And He will guide you every step of the way . . .
“I have plans to prosper you. I have plans to give you hope. I have plans for a future for you,” God declares. – from Jeremiah 29:11
You are God-ordained to live a bold and purpose-filled life.
And it starts by choosing to no longer be stuck in a rut.
Still feeling stuck? You weren’t designed to stay there.
The Hope & Courage Reset will fuel your hope so you can find the courage to step out of your rut and into purpose-driven action.
🎁 It’s my gift to you. Let’s take that first step together.
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