- Accept responsibility for your own life.
I have observed that when most people get stuck, they try to blame others for their difficulties. However, the truth is that the older you get, the more responsible you become for your circumstances. Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… Think about your life – where are you shirking responsibility or playing the victim? Have you blamed others for bad choices you made in life? Are you failing to follow through on anything that you know you should be doing? Are you doing things that you should never have agreed to do? Is your definition of success and happiness equal with fulfilling the expectations of others around you? Getting out of a rut begins with the acknowledgement that you must make the choices to do so.
- Know what you want and where you want to be.
I know a lot of people who hoped and dreamed of being successful, but their goals never become more specific than that. You must define where you want to go and what you want in life; it is not guaranteed that you will reach your goals or achieve your visions, but if you don’t define them, it’s almost certain that you will reach nowhere. What are you going to spend your life for? Is it something you really want to do? Have you given yourself a clear target? Have you developed and written out long term visions? If not, you need to.
- Break-down your long-term visions into short-term visions.
One thing that often paralyzes people is having a vision or even a big goal with no realistic way of achieving it. How do you solve that? Break it down into bite-sized pieces, which you can accomplish with focused effort. Figure out the smaller steps necessary to get there. Break it down from your long term visions to intermediate visions, annual goals, monthly or weekly steps, and get down towards what you need to do today.
- Do not procrastinate and take action today.
All the dreaming, hoping, planning and goal-setting in the world won’t do a thing for you, if you never follow through. I meet people all the time who say: “I am an IT expert/ teacher/ accountant and I want to do something great”, but they don’t actually do anything. They just dream and that’s it. It’s very frustrating. What small action can you take today that will start moving you out of your rut and take you one small step closer to your vision? It doesn’t have to be a big or significant step. It just needs to be a small step in the right direction.
- Grow into your tomorrow.
While the steps you take today don’t need to be earth-shattering, you don’t want every step forward to be small and insignificant either. You want your steps to be progressively bigger, smarter and more strategic. The only way I know to make that happen is to be intentional about getting better every day and striving for excellence all the time. If you don’t have a highly intentional plan for personal growth, you might get out of today’s rut and dig yourself a new one tomorrow. Don’t do it. If you keep getting better, keep climbing higher, you’ll never find yourself stuck – at least not for long.
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