Just a quick FYI before you start reading this post. I think I broke the cliché machine when
writing this. It’s 4:30 am in the
morning and I was just writing down the thoughts as they came pouring out. I hope nothing I said is too far off of the
mark or offends anybody. Please forgive
me if I sound too much like a self-help fountain.
Get Stuck.
It’s okay to get stuck in life. It means that at some point in your life,
things happened to stop your momentum.
You ceased moving in the direction that you wanted to go. Oftentimes, if we get stuck, it means that we
were simply trying something that didn’t quite pan out. This is a great time to follow that old
phrase, “Fail fast, fail often”. Once
you know something isn’t working, once you know that you are stuck, you are now
in a position to try new ways to get yourself unstuck.
Try something new.
Try something wild. Try something untested. If you are stuck in life and you
keep doing the same kinds of things to try to get moving again, you will
continue to keep getting the same kinds of results.
Some problems will never go away, but you can go around
them. You can move beyond them. Here are a few examples that popped in my
head:
1) If you are
confined to the house due to an illness - I know, that can be a bummer. You and the doctors have tried
everything. Perhaps it is a good time to
grow beyond your pot; to break the mold. Try to find a problem that you can
solve. Maybe you can’t fix your illness,
but I’ll bet you can use your time to find a solution to something else. Whether it is finally finishing that book you've
been meaning to write or figuring out how to make the bathroom door stop
squeaking, focus on the problems that you can actually fix.
2) When graduating
college, you cannot find a job in your major - Eventually, you may have to take
a job outside of your major. It may
suck, but I’ll bet if you look, you can find jobs that are more interesting outside of your major. Try applying for
those too! Don’t limit your potential.
3) You have a family
member that you can’t fix - No matter what you do, this family member will not
change. You continue to provide them
with sound and reasonable advice, but they refuse to be responsible. What do you do? Maybe the best answer is to do nothing. The relationship will stay stuck unless you
accept that it’s not on you to force this change. Try to find other ways that you can share
with this family member outside of the problem.
These are just a few ideas.
Obviously, there are a bazillion-kajillion scenarios where you can get
stuck. There is no one solution. It is okay to get stuck. Hey, get stuck more often! That is the best time to innovate, grab a
crowbar, and come at your problem from the side.
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