Feeling stuck in business and your career is one of the top 5 uncomfortable things you can experience as a working adult. You can come to feel contrite over this inability to get over this rut in your work. Aside from serious illness or loss of loved ones, feeling stuck in your business and your career can deteriorate your self-worth, gratitude, and most importantly, your happiness. It can lead to depression, addiction, and a negative downward spiral of your mental and physical health if you are not careful. When you start losing the confidence and swagger it took you years to build, you start questioning yourself. You had the answers before and are really good at what you do, so what is the problem? Why is my business failing? Why can’t I get an interview or be promoted? Why am I so unhappy with the way things are going? Why am I stuck? Unfortunately, I know first hand the feeling of being stuck and not being able to get over the impression that every little thing is going against you. It’s a never ending, overwhelming sensation that the clock is ticking away on the life you used to have or the life you envision you should have. I’ve found a system of getting “Unstuck”, as I like to call it, to help me in these moments and find a way out of this mental roadblock. Even though this is targeted to help you in your work life, you will find that these methods to getting “Unstuck” will help in every aspect of your life. The reality is, being stuck is so far from being the worst thing in life. Think of it like a baseball player in a hitting slump who just can’t catch a break. What do they do? They try to break routines or habits. They change a stance, wear eye black, try a different size bat, and change their swing. But what most hitting coaches would tell them is to not change your bat or stance, but change the way you are thinking and your approach. Just like in sports, 80% of business and life is mental and 20% is your effort. Slumps are just bumps and they rhyme for a reason. Ok so let’s get “Unstuck” in the way you are thinking, which will help you get through the gate-keeper and on to that interview, promotion, or pitching a new business idea. Just for the record, I don’t have a degree in psychology nor am I certified as a life coach, lifeguard, or crossing guard. But I do have a PhD in practicality from surviving the sharks in corporate America, several startups, 30 years of marriage, and raising four children. Here’s where you can start getting “UnStuck”. First and foremost, remember that your employees, colleagues, bankers, investors, bosses, hair stylist, and neighbors don’t give a s$#! that you are feeling stuck. So don’t complain to anyone that can’t help you. Change your attitude from an “I’m so stuck” approach to a sense of acceptance that “It’s just my turn”. Realizing that you are going through something that every other person experiences will make you feel less trapped in this state of mind. Knowing that it’s just your turn, allows you to positively move forward and create change for yourself. When you play the victim, life won’t get easier. Use marathon runners as an example. They challenge themselves every time they train and have to work through that feeling of being stuck. Surely they get to a point when they say, “I can’t get past that mile time”. But they don’t stop running. They change their attitude and look at smaller challenges and victories that help them chip away at their “I’m so stuck” state of mind. They don’t run a marathon every day to train their minds and bodies. They run a series of shorter marathons each day, week, and month that lead up to the big one. It’s a similar model to getting “Unstuck” with your business and career. A good friend told me she works through her daily routine, stress, and anxiety by focusing on the 10 things in front of her right now (10 minutes, 10 hours, and 10 days). She would tell me to not look at more than that. I loved the theory, it made sense to me and I followed it for a few years. But then I needed shorter steps, maybe it’s my ADD, but I had to break it into smaller bite sizes that fit my personality better into what I call the Big5! So here’s what you can do to shift your mindset from being stuck to getting “Unstuck”. You have to train your mind (80%) to think differently and execute on the Big5 Daily Goals (20%). Try this Big5 outline daily, Monday through Friday, to help make your goals attainable. Each day take 5 minutes to write down your goals in a notebook or a notes app on your phone. Just move the goals along each day and shift them when circumstances change. This will help you feel more organized in your approach to getting “Unstuck” and makes it less overwhelming. Here you go. BIG 5 Goals
Goals 1-3 do change a bit depending on what I experience, people I meet or reconnect with, or simply if I read something that sparked an idea the day before. Goals 4 & 5 are my long term results I want to see happen from the smaller goals. For example: increase monthly revenue by $3,000, speak at 2 conferences, write 5 blogs, or book 10 high profile podcast guests. This exercise will help you with those big ideas and will start to look like a wish list. Writing out goals really works. Although it might seem forced or hookie if you’ve never done them other than a grocery or to-do list, you will see the results if you can at the very least, do them Monday through Friday. When I first started, I never had the interest or discipline to do them daily, but once I committed to do it and found a process that worked for me, I saw the results happen. When you are stuck, you need to put massive effort into recalibrating your mind and into the areas that will challenge you mentally. When you tackle these challenges in your head, every situation now becomes effortless knowing that you have been preparing for any conversation or opportunity that comes your way. You have thought each scenario through. Try the Big5 and let me know after a week what changes you have made, what results you are seeing, and what is happening around you to start opening up to being “Unstuck”. I hope this has helped you or someone you know who is going through a stuck period and there is a message in these words that resonated with them and perhaps you. It would be great if you wouldn’t mind sharing your thoughts or if you want to ask me questions on your BIG5 goals, kindly feel free to connect with me at rob@gameplanu.org. Get “Unstuck” and start with the 5 small steps that will lead you to finish your mental marathon. Start your BIG5 Goals journey today.
1 Comment
9/8/2019 02:55:49 am
We all have a dream that makes our lives a great one. We can always choose what our hearts say since there are millions of goals to achieve. We need to do it one by one and slowly we will get to the place that we wanted to be. There are some confusion about business and career. We can go for the extra mile and look at both sides to know which path that we will take. The process may take for a while, but there will be bright answers and we will know the right answers if we listen to our hearts.
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