Thursday, August 7, 2014

Get Stuck

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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