3 Powerful Steps to do When you Feel Stuck in Life

Life is filled with uncertainties and situations that challenge us every now and then, sometimes we cope with them easily and sometimes a continuous feeling arises among us, that is, “ I feel stuck”.  Hence, here, we will focus on 3 powerful steps to do when you feel stuck in life.

This feeling of feeling stuck is often associated with characteristics such as “feeling lack of motivation” and “feeling your energy drained from within”. While this feeling of being stuck is somewhat normal to us humans as we all experience it in our lives, some a little more than others. And while there may be different reasons for everyone to feel this, some common root causes could be a conflict with close ones, work or life stress, mid-life crisis, or overthinking. 

So, how to beat this feeling? There are a few steps you can take to overcome this feeling by yourself. 

These are:  

1. Embrace the Feeling of Being Stuck

The first step is to embrace the feeling of being stuck, hence, realize that life sometimes can get hard and it’s agreeable to feel stuck sometimes in different aspects of life, be it work or in a relationship. Even if you experience obstacles such as losing excitement about things you earlier used to get excited for, realize that you aren’t alone in experiencing these thoughts and you won’t feel the same everyday.

Furthermore, you need to understand that ups and downs are part of life and it’s the downs that help us to understand the importance of ups in our life. Therefore, try to embrace the downs, even if they build this feeling of being stuck. 

You can also remind yourself of past instances where you thought you won’t be able to recover from that situation but you did, so tell yourself, “I have done it earlier, and I can do it again” and “This time too shall pass”. These realizations can help you break out the cycle of feeling stuck and open a window of hope. Furthermore, increasing your self-worth can help in embracing this feeling of being stuck.

2. Identify the source

The next step is to identify the source of the feeling of being stuck. A lot of times we aren’t even aware of the root causes of what’s causing us to feel something. And without understanding the source of this feeling, it’s hard to work on yourself. Hence, it’s better to learn the source and find alternative solutions rather than waiting for the feeling to just pass away. 

One effective way to understand the source of that feeling is by asking yourself the following questions:

• What am I feeling right now?
• In which field of life am I feeling stuck?
• What recent event could be a source of this feeling?
• Which recent or past conversation with someone affected this feeling?
• Is there any other factor that affected this feeling of yours?

3. Change your perspective

Sometimes after being stuck in the loop of feeling a constant emotion of helplessness, it’s harder for individuals to see some obvious pathways to break that cycle. Hence, a change in perspective is necessary to save yourself from these unhealthy habits that can contribute to that lull in your life where you just don’t feel like doing much at all.

Some effective ways to change your perspective are: 

• Think of any stressful situation and consider how someone else would have reacted to that situation. Try to think of someone whom you admire or think highly of, and consider yourself to use their approach to deal with your situation. 
• Build a change in your habits or learn something new. This allows your mind to become more flexible and adapt to environments that automatically shift focus from getting stuck to work on the current task of learning something new.
• Take a break to change your current perspective and line of thoughts, change in scenario often results in providing the necessary time to reflect on personal self.  

Try Joyup Genie’s 50+ personal development and career growth challenges!

Furthermore, in times when individuals feel stuck with the same kind of negative thinking, a change in self-talk becomes a necessity. To do this, first, become aware of how you think about yourself. To do this, try journal writing after each day where you put down all of your thoughts and emotions.

Then you identify which of those thoughts are negative and then finally write them positively. For example, tell yourself “ I like me” when you think about “No one likes me” or “ I made a mistake” instead of “I am a bad person”.

Another method to build this self-compassion is to talk about yourself in the way you talk about the most respected person in life. It is difficult but it’s possible when you actually try to understand yourself and realize why you are having this phase of feeling stuck.