Welcome to my weekly newsletter. I provide support, strategies and ideas to help your personal and professional development. The topic The strategy The takeaway
This week topic:
"How to get out of a rut"
Here's a situation that will sound familiar:
You wake up on time, nail your morning routine, and charge forward into the unknown of your day with confidence.
You're in the flow.
Then, suddenly, you aren't.
You're not sure why.
But your motivation and inspiration runs dry.
Things become very, very difficult.
You struggle to get up on time, skip your morning routine, and feel sluggish as you head into the day.
You're in a rut.
It's ok—we've all been there.
Here what I do to go back on my path.
Step 1 Stop digging
"The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging." ― Warren Buffett
Think of being in a rut as being at the bottom of a hole. We're typically digging ourselves deeper into that hole without realising it.
One most common way that we dig ourselves deeper:
Negativity: It's easy to be hard on yourself when you're in a rut. You start using negative self-talk to criticise your lack of motivation and discipline. You start to believe negative things about yourself, which leads you to find evidence to support those negative beliefs. This is digging you deeper into the hole.
The first step is to stop digging.
Upgrade Your Mindset: Eliminate the negativity. If you catch the negative self-talk happening, stop it.
Take Rest: When you find yourself in a rut, don't try to get out of it in an instant. Give yourself the time and space to rest.
If you've successfully stopped digging, congratulations, you've made it through the most important part.
Step 2: Change Direction
There are all variety of factors that are outside of your control that may have contributed to you falling into a rut, but this step solely focuses on those within your control.
Look internally and externally at the controllable:
Internally: How am I complicit in creating the conditions that I don't want? This question forces you to pause and look inward; to ask whether there are any actions, mindsets, or patterns through which you were contributing to the rut. How can you change those conditions?
Externally: How is your environment negatively shaping this reality? Most of the time, your environment contributes to your rut. You may just need a change of scenery, or you may need to remove some people or things that are draining your energy and contributing to the negative cycle.
As you change direction, focus on your identity: What mental and physical space would the ideal version of yourself occupy here? Step 3: Create Movement Move. If you wait to act until you feel motivated, you may never start. Motivation is a natural byproduct of movement. When in doubt, just start moving. The Takeaway: Narrow your focus and start small, even tiny.
Build from there. Try and feel free to let me know. That's all for this week. And if you enjoyed today's newsletter, please share it with your friend, family and colleagues. Much love, Paolo
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