5 Ways to Stay Stuck in a Rut
There are seasons in life when it feels like you’re walking in circles. The same thoughts, the same conversations, the same Monday mornings that blend into each other until you wonder if time is actually moving. Ruts sneak up on us. They feel safe and normal, until you wake up one day and realize you haven’t moved forward in months.
I’ve been working on this topic for a bit, and it became more personal today. I’ve been in a “comfortable” rut with work for awhile, and this morning I was told that my role is being made redundant. Things happen for a reason, and this is a shift I probably wouldn’t have made anytime soon, without what feels like a Monday-morning shove off a cliff. Stay tuned as I look at my next steps! If you also think you’ve been in a rut, and if you’d like to guarantee you stay in one, here are five solid strategies:
1. Hit snooze on your dreams.
Not just the alarm clock, but the bigger things too. The career change you keep imagining, the fitness goal, the creative project, the conversation you know you need to have. Tell yourself you’ll start when the timing is right. But there’s never a perfect time. So snooze away, and let your dreams gather dust.
2. Do what you’ve always done.
If you want a different result, you’d have to try something different, and that sounds uncomfortable. It’s so much easier to keep looping the same routines: wake, work, scroll, sleep, repeat. Comfort zones are like padded cells - quiet, predictable, and slowly suffocating.
3. Avoid reflection at all costs.
Don’t journal, don’t check in with yourself, and definitely don’t talk to someone who might hold up a mirror. Reflection is dangerous because it makes you aware, and awareness often leads to action. If you’d prefer to stay blissfully numb, keep distracting yourself.
4. Compare until you despair.
A rut loves company, and there’s nothing better than endless social media scrolling to remind you how far behind you feel. Someone’s on holiday, someone’s starting a business, someone’s running an ultramarathon. Excellent. That should keep you feeling small enough to stay put.
5. Outsource responsibility for your life.
Surely someone else will come in and fix things for you. Your boss will finally see your potential, your partner will just know what you need, the universe will align. Until then, sit tight. Powerlessness is a great way to dig your rut a little deeper.
None of us intend to get stuck, but we all have default patterns. The brain likes the familiar, even if the familiar is slowly draining us. But ruts aren’t permanent. They’re grooves we’ve walked into, and with a little courage, we can also step out of them.
This is where coaching comes in. A coach helps you notice the habits you can’t see, interrupt the loops you keep replaying, and build momentum where you’ve stalled. Coaching doesn’t hand you the answers. Coaching hands you a ladder, so you can climb out of the hole you’ve been circling in.
If you recognized yourself in even one of the five points above, congratulations. You’re normal! And also, you don’t have to keep living like this. The first step out of the rut is deciding you’re ready to stop snoozing, stop repeating, stop waiting, and start moving.
