Dealing with a rut
On Father’s Day (June 18, that is!), a friend shared a web link with me on WhatsApp, that led me to a podcast on YouTube by Tony Robbins, an American author and life coach.
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The accompanying message by my friend, which was “I know you will like it” got me curious about the content in the first place. Actually, I did like it too, after listening to the end.
Passionately, Robin shared various perspectives on this interview-style podcast that got me interested in him more. So, I started a web-search to understand, even more, what Robin stood for.
In fact, I found a few good words on his personal website, where “Team Tony” shares various inspirational, uplifting and simple messages. This particular one, titled: “Identifying and overcoming the beliefs and habits that hold you back” got Robin on my side!
Hear the team: “Have you ever been stuck in the snow or mud? You dig and dig. You attempt everything you can, but you keep spinning your wheels.
That’s how it feels to be stuck in a rut. But it isn’t hopeless.
There are specific actions you can take that will retrain your brain, change your mindset and empower you to go after your goals harder than ever before.
Once you learn how to get out of a rut, you’ll be unstoppable”.
Indeed! In my book, “Dealing with the Little Leaks that Keep you Poor”, I have a section on dealing with rut of this kin—as described by Robin.
It is that moment when you don’t feel like doing anything—even the things that used to excite you. You realise that you are not only low on energy but also generally depressed about the day’s work. Here, l am not talking about the general feelings we get when things are not going well or you are troubled about an issue.
I am talking about a professional, for example, someone who is enjoying the salary he or she is paid but the work has become so monotonous that it does not generate any excitement or feel-good factor once it has been accomplished.
That, certainly, is not a good sign. In fact, whereas there are certain decisions and actions, such us developing your creative juices, improving your networking skills or even getting out of your comfort zone to get your hands on a new job, that could help you get out of rut, sometimes you may actually have to deal with “blind spots”, that which is hindering you from progress.
Blind spots prevent you from seeing the easy connections that could help you to improve your life vision. Consider blind spots as that part of your life that is difficult to see and yet very necessary to spot if you are to make good progress.
Take the case of a driver or yourself, if you drive, as an example. There are blind spots that the instructor always ensured that you became aware of in driving school.
For that reason, you were, l am sure, always reminded to use your mirrors, and signal before manoeuvring. That way, you will be alerting those who can see you but you can’t spot them, to avoid an accident.
In the May 8, 2015 Edition of this column, I explained blind spots and how to deal with it. Even though the edition was devoted to blind spots in our finances, it still has relevance when applied in broad terms.
“Our blind spots go unnoticed, because the images in the blind spot of each eye are filled in by the visual field of the other eye. However, cover one eye and you’ll swear any objects appearing in the blind spot of your seeing eye are simply not there. But our brains abhor a visual vacuum, so instead of seeing a hole or a black spot, they fill in the blind spot,” says Jim Harris, and l repeated this in the May 8, 2015 edition.
“Now, in a New Scientist magazine article on blindness and attention, the results were revealing so try and picture it: ‘You’re walking across a college campus when a stranger asks you for directions.
While you’re talking to him, two men pass between you carrying a wooden door. You feel a moment’s irritation, but they move on and you carry on describing the route.
When you’ve finished, the stranger informs you that you’ve just taken part in a psychology experiment.
‘Did you notice anything changed after the two men passed with the door?’ he asks. ‘No,’ you reply uneasily. He then explains that the man who initially approached you walked off behind the door, leaving him in his place. The first man now comes up to join you.
Looking at them standing side by side, you notice that the two are of different height and build, are dressed differently, have different haircuts and different voices.
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It sounds impossible, but when Daniel Simmons, a psychologist at Harvard University, and his colleague Daniel Levin of Kent State University in Ohio actually did this experiment, they found that fully 50 per cent of those who took part failed to notice the substitution”. Another example of what l wrote in the referenced edition.
Team Tony has something else to say, which is that if you stay in your comfort zone it “is a subtler way to be stuck in a rut.
You may not feel bad outright, but have a sense that you’re not living up to your full potential.
Personal growth is essential to living a fulfilled life – if you’re not growing, you’re dying”, and that you will not get ahead!
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“This is common when you’re in a financial rut: You spend all your time working, but you’re making just enough to get by, not get ahead.
You can’t seem to land your dream job or scale your business. It’s time to set new goals and discover how to get out of a rut and get ahead”.
Do you remember this anonymous quote: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”? You therefore need a paradigm shift to deal with the rut.
Science explains that the brain is a network consisting of billions of interconnected neurons and therefore our brains work in such a way that patterns are reinforced.
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Therefore, the more we think a certain way, the stronger the associations become. That means that over time we get into a rut in terms of our thinking; we get deceived by our “blind spots.”
botabil@gmail.com