How To Get Out Of A Rut

Burnout and ruts tends to be synonymous. For the self-help junkies especially, there is a tendency to do a lot of work at once, and then spend a period of time backsliding and "losing progress." Today, we will discuss on how to properly take care of yourself when you're in a rut.

Vision, Mission And Purpose

If everyday, you do nothing but scroll on TikTok, the problem is not you. The problem is that you do not have a vision, mission and purpose. Everyone on this planet has something to contribute.

Vision involves the future you see, for yourself and others. Mission means what you're going to do to get yourself and others there. Purpose means, if you don't make it happen, someone is going to wake up in pain and suffering. Purpose is the motivational fuel that will keep you going.

Write down everything you want to achieve, print out a vision board. Research about what you want to do in the future. Look at people living your dream. Whatever you need to do to formulate your actualized self, get that vision which sets the core foundation that will psuh you through the finish line.

Hustle Culture Is Nonsense

Let me tell you a dirty secret. The human mind only has the capacity to dish out only four hours of creative output everyday. That means, you could only build buisnessess, pickup girls, write your novel or whatever for only four hours a day effectively.

How come is it the case that some people can work for up to 12 or 16 hours a day? Usually, after four hours, either you will have to use willpower, which we will discuss in a moment or they are doing activities that are "brainless" which does not require you to be in a "flow state."

Plan you day in such a way where you can fully squeeze out your creative output and reserve your energy so that you use it in areas where it matters to you the most. If I am planning a pickup session in the night, then I would avoid all creative activities leading up to that in the day.

Also, take care of your sleep and the basics. If you don't have a strong morning routine or you either A) wake up in the middle of the night or B) didn't naturally wake up with an alarm, that four hours of creativity just went to zero for that day.

Growth Occurs In Cycles

For growth to happen, there must be backsliding (rut). A person needs to backslide in order to remove their old self before they can make room to integrate their new self. You can think of backsliding as the process of installing a new update on your phone.

You know you're backsliding when you're going back to old and unhealthy habits that you seemingly have conquered a few weeks ago. This is normal. Try your best to maintain the positive habits you have built, but be mindful of your old and undesirable cravings.

Your mind is like an oscillator. When you try to push and change yourself, the mind will resist and "spring you back" in the opposite direction. During times of backsliding, don't try to "make more progress" or fight againts it. But remind yourself that this period of time is necessary for you to integrate the lessons you've learnt over the last few weeks or months.

A Good Question

When you're feeling really lazy and unmotivated, what I usually would like to ask myself is: "What is the most emotionally challenging thing I can do right now?" Whatever that answer is, I will go do it.

The problem with this method is that it requires willpower. And you only have that much willpower. Another problem with willpower is that it is also forced, meaning that you won't be able to get into a "flow state" because your mind always wants to get off whatever that task is.

Vacations And Proper Rest

A good way to replenish your willpower is through vacations. If you haven't taken a vacation in 3 ~ 6 months, you should take a one-week vacation as soon as possible because that will help you realign with your values and give you very important insights about the problems you have in life which you can work on.

If you had your vacation recently (less than 3 months), then go do something else that is not related with the task at hand. For me, I like to go to this relaxing cafe and just drink tea until I catch myself an inspiration. By moving away from the task at hand, this allows the subconscious to get to work.

"Resting" cannot be lazying around with your phone scrolling TikTok. For your mind to actually generate insights it must be void of distractions. Utilize the techniques in my post on boredom for the specifics.

Do not look down on vacations. Even though they might be expensive and inconvenient, by not going on the vacation you actually shoot yourself in the foot in the long term by "toughing it out" everyday. Trust that the vacation will bring good results for your life. Refer to "solo retreats" on how you can plan proper vacations.

Purposeful Action

Humans are naturally drawn to purpose. Without a purpose behind why you're doing a specific thing, you'll just naturally find it to be tedious and meaningless. Examine the tasks you're doing in your life. Are they purposeless? If they are, that's probably why you're in a rut.

Either delegate those tasks away to someone else so that you can engage in activities you actually want to do, or remind yourself why you started in the first place. Remind yourself of the original vision you wanted to embark on the journey, and that should be enough to get your ass off the couch.

Another really effective thing is that remind yourself that someone is going to die when you don't get up and take action. Purpose always have something to do with the greater good. By reminding yourself how difficult it was for you in the past, doing what matters to help other ease off their suffering for a little while is worth all the effort.

If not for others, then tell yourself, "I will learn how to overcome this painful problem right now so that I may teach it to other people just like me in the future." Woah, what a powerful statement is that? That will get you up real quick. Find a way to relate what you're doing to others and the greater good.

Vision Alignment

Ruts can also occur when you fall out of your alignment with your larger purpose and mission. Spend some time reconnecting with that vision you set out for yourself and remember how inspiring that was to bring you to this position in the first place.

One possible cause of this vision misalignment is from Jeremiahs and naysayers. These people can also take a toll on you after listening to their judgments for awhile. The mind only has a certain capacity to block them out before the virus starts to enter and creates doubts.

The best case to deal with them is to enforce your boundaries and reiterate to the Jeremiahs that your vision is fragile. Make it clear that you will be willing to break off the relationship if they do not respect your vision for the future. Take some time off and stop dealing with people if need be.

Motivational Content

I have trained my short-form content algorithms to serve me up motivational content when I am in a rut. Immediately when I am looking for a distraction, I look at all the beautiful film and creative stories people have made online and that just fires me up back into action.

Another good way is music. Have some upbeat, happy music. I like music particularly from the 2000s, they make me dance, move around and get me into a happy mood. Dancing and listening to music can be a way to break out of a rut as well.

Talking to friends about your day can be a good way to boot yourself back up. Now a caution of warning here, you have to speak to friends who are supportive, or else they are going to send you deeper down the hole.

Body Relaxation

The first avenue you can take is the meditative route. Search up some affirmations or some general meditation music and just lie on the floor and relax your entire body. Do be aware that you can accidentally fall asleep if you do this.

If you're not looking to fall asleep and do something quick, you can relax your body through breathing. Take two to five minutes to breathe deeply and consciously. While breathing, notice any tensed up muscles and continuously relax them until you feel "totally at peace."

Conclusion

This is probably one of the best articles when it comes to the solutions I wrote. For the last two months, I've really struggled with getting myself out of a rut. These are all the techniques I managed to get myself out one way or another. Hope this managed to help you as well.

That's it for me. Best of luck. Please check out my other posts and practice everything holistically. Send me an email if you want a specific topic written. You can see "coaching" to see if I have room to onboard new students.

Cheers,
FriendlyWrenChilling.