Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Are You Stuck in a Rut? (Part 1)

Doing the same things in the same way, day after day, can sap our energy and enthusiasm, leaving us unsure how to restore excitement and spontaneity to our lives.This is a clear message that it's time to change, but how?

Lighten up.
Sometimes you need to give yourself a break from the constant nagging, and those shoulda's, woulda's, and coulda's that you keep running through your mind. Chastising yourself is clearly not helping you actually get anything done, not to mention that it's depressing and bad for your emotional well-being. Take the pressure off in any way you can — give yourself a longer deadline on a project, or scratch out all items on your “to do” list that can wait until next week. 

Take stock of your comfort zone.
To get out of your rut, you need to have a good understanding of what —if anything—is keeping you in it.  Are echoes of your past influencing your responses and keeping you stuck in place? Understanding where your responses are coming from is a first step toward getting yourself on the move.

7-Road signB&W-smMake a small change.
Even a small alteration in a rut can have remarkably liberating effects, Call someone you haven’t talked to for a long time. Try a new recipe or workout regimen. Instead of watching TV in the evenings, dig into a compelling book.

Set attainable goals.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of change getting out of the rut will entail? When you set goals, keep in mind that we all tend to exaggerate our abilities and we also attribute failure to circumstances beyond our control, rather than ourselves. Be ruthlessly realistic about how well your talents match up with the goal you’ve set. If the rut has to do with a goal you’ve set for yourself that seems unreachable most of the time, you need to pull back and master the thought process called mental contrasting.

Use mental contrasting.
This technique involves keeping your ideal future in mind while also thinking about the factors that may stand in the way of your achieving that future —almost as if you were looking at two images on a split screen. Mental contrasting allows you to be energized and motivated by that desired future, on the one hand, while keeping you realistic about what you need to do to fix potential problems, on the other. This also promotes strategic “If.. then” thinking which allows you to plan your reactions and responses to potential setbacks. Excerpted from Psychology Today


More tips to follow...


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