5 Best Ways to Help You come Out of Your Rut

Often in the course of our life we find ourselves stuck in the RUT. This Rut can be anything-a mundane daily routine, a horrible Boss, a loveless marriage, not getting the due promotion,…it can be anything where one is forced to be in the same unhappy and boring situation in his or her everyday life.

One of the reasons for people getting stuck in the RUT is because they are not pro-active enough to foresee the situation early enough. And as the situation become bad to worse they seem to accept the situation “as a matter of fact” with the thought that it would be difficult to bring the change.

And then what they do? They just fire fight on a daily basis or sulk in their RUT rather than trying to find an appropriate solution. So, rather than finding solutions to the problem, they try to do stop gap arrangements- just putting up patches in their daily schedule. The result is that they continue getting stuck in the RUT!

So, the question comes as ‘How to get out of this RUT?’. I believe with some efforts and planning one can get out of the RUT that he or she is stuck with.  I list down five steps which if implemented will help you to get out of whatever RUT you are stuck with. Let’s go one by one:-

1. Do a Self Analysis- Identify Why/What is the RUT

First and foremost, you need to do a honest self-analysis of your present situation. What is it that you are finding mundane, uncomfortable, and boring or are being unhappy about? And this unhappy situation is same day after day. So, identifying the exact or the actual root cause is very important. You need to exactly pin point- WHAT IS THAT YOU NEED TO CHANGE? (about yourself or the situation that you are unhappy about).

2. Jot down Simple Solutions

Now that you know the root cause of your situation-what next? Simple, fix it! Yes, when you know what is causing the RUT, go ahead and solve the issue by working on the root cause. Is that so simple? NO. It’s not. But then the root cause needs to be worked upon, right? Yes. The best way is to jot down simple solutions that you think might work out to improve if not completely alter the present situation. Filter out the solutions that you think would be difficult to implement. Review the final list of solutions and now work out on a concrete plan around these solutions. Yes, an action plan-step by step. 

Always remember, writing down on paper what is there in your mind is a very effective exercise. Simply because it gets scheduled for you and you start putting the plan into action.You can always come back and review or alter it. And remember, your plan needs to have action points with a time line.

Remember one thing- every situation/problem has a solution only if you are eager and aggressive enough to look for it. And only YOU can change YOUR situation!

3. Take this as an Opportunity

Whenever you are faced with a challenge, never pity yourself. Don’t start complaining or get yourself in a self-pity mode thinking how unlucky you are. NEVER! Rather, you should take this as an opportunity to get something new out of it. Discover something new from this RUT. How? You need to be little creative here. When you jotted down the simple solutions as mentioned earlier, add more options to each solution…see what all you can connect…find if there is scope of creating something new while resolving this issue. Can you accommodate your other goals, can you totally revamp something in your life, and what about the Passion (what you always wanted to do but could not do till now) you had-can that be accommodated while working on the solutions?

The bottom line is that you need to find or create an opportunity for yourself out of this RUT. Apply your mind and I am sure you will come out with multiple opportunities for yourself! All the best!

One thing I would like to clarify here- To be in a RUT and breaking monotony are two different things. To break monotony you have multiple options to try for- take a break and go for a movie, spend an entire day in a mall/exhibition centre, spend an entire day in a Book Shop/Library browsing through your favourite books and magazines, visit zoo (believe me, it will do wonders!) or simply take an off and laze around the house sipping coffee in your balcony staring the sky!

4. Give your Best

All this while i.e. when you are stuck in the RUT, ensure that you are Giving Your Best! And what I mean by Giving Your Best is that your performance should not suffer…Performance at work, duties towards family, your own hygiene and health. Often, slackness appears in our performance and attitude…we tend to become a bit careless and irritated when we are stuck in the RUT. Ensure that you are not caught in this slackness. It will only do harm. Maintain your positive attitude during these hard times and always have the bigger picture in mind. With your positive actions and efforts, things will change and you will create the circumstances and environment that you can enjoy and be happy about. So remember, no negligence towards your duties and your work.

5. Stick to your Decisions

Once you have taken a decision as per your action plan- stick to it. No matter what, ensure that you don’t change your mind. There might be issues and hindrances and things might not go as perceived by you, but stick to your decision. In the long run, you will gain.  Remember that there is always some amount of risk involved in every action that you take. You just need to hedge that risk by doing a careful planning…that’s it! 

I am sure the above points would help you to get you out of whatever RUT you are in and will get the smile back on your face.

I will end this with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, which I have posted on my study table since my University days…

” PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS BLAMING THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES FOR WHAT THEY ARE. I DON’T BELIEVE IN CIRCUMSTANCES. THE PEOPLE WHO GET ON IN THE WORLD ARE THE PEOPLE WHO GET UP AND LOOK FOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES THEY WANT AND IF THEY CAN’T FIND THEM, MAKE THEM”.

Cheers!