Feeling Stuck? Here are 7 Ways to Get Unstuck in Life

This is your road map to living a more fulfilling life

When you feel stuck or dissatisfied, recognize it as a signal that you need to change, not as a signal your life is broken. It’s a signal that one of your most basic needs is not being met and the only way you’ll meet it is by forcing yourself to get uncomfortable. — Mel Robbins

At some point, almost every one of us gets stuck. So, if you feel stuck right now, you are not alone.

Humans are inclined to get stuck because most people are afraid of change. As Arnold Bennett stated, "Any change, even for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts." And you can never move forward until you stop complaining and start making changes.

Stuck people have these five things in common.

1. They lack clarity. They do not know where they want to go in life.
2. Some Stuck people know where they want to go but do not know how to get there. They lack a clear path to their target. They are stuck in the gap between the present and the future.
3. They are outward-focused. They focus on other people instead of focusing on their inner peace.
4. They lack daily plans of action. They start each day without accurately understanding what they need to do.
5. They underestimate themselves. They do not have a clear picture of their strengths and opportunities.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

If you want to get unstuck and accomplish your goals faster, continue reading this article, and I will provide you with ten behaviors that will make you unstoppable. We need to be able to focus on moving forward and not fighting the old.

1- Find Your One Thing

Make sure every day you do what matters most. When you know what matters most, everything makes sense. When you don’t know what matters most, anything makes sense.”― Gary Keller.

What do you do better than most people around you?

Nothing adds more complexity to your life than ignoring your true calling or doing something you don't want to do for 8–10 hours daily.

Finding your one thing is about finding your purpose in life. It provides clarity and allows you to focus your energy on the most critical thing in your life.

What problems do you love to solve?

This is a different question than, "What do you love to do?" Some people love to do things that serve no purpose and do not add value to anyone's life. This meaningless work leads to boredom.

Focus on solving one big problem that people are struggling with. Then, build your life purpose or business around your one thing. When you solve someone's problem, you add value to their life and meaning to your life.

You will get stuck if you don't continually remind yourself of your life purpose. Your life purpose answers the question, WHY? Why do you do what you do?

Action step: Find your one thing.

• What do you love to do?
• What is your purpose?
• What is the big problem that you enjoy solving?

Once you answer these questions, you will get unstuck and gain momentum towards your goals.

2- Decide where you'll be in 10 years and get there in the next six months

“How can you achieve your 10-year plan in the next 6 months?” — Peter Thiel

If you want to write a book once you retire, start writing today. Stop waiting for later. Change your mindset. Later is now. Write your goals and start working on accomplishing them.

In an interview with CNBC, Tim Ferris said he doesn't have a 10-year plan he is trying to stick to; he does 6–12-week experiments. Then, if they work well, he scales them. If not, Ferris does something else.

He believes in possibilities and not plans.

Ferris adds, "I like pushing myself to the limit and pushing the envelope, and in my mind, that is incompatible with a reliable long-term plan."

Ralph Waldo Emerson used to say, "Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." It is time to decide to achieve your goals faster and let the universe conspire with you to make that happen.

Action Step: Think less time for more impact.

Look at your goals. What can you do to accomplish them faster? What can you do to keep yourself focused for 6–12 weeks? Who do you need to collaborate with to get things done?

3- Create Your Rules

At the highest level of performance, you are separated by what you don’t do. It is only by un-learning other people’s ideas, rules, and games that you become the most original version of yourself. — Benjamin Hardy

Write Your Rules

Stop playing with rules that you did not design. For example, waking up at 5 in the morning might work for your friends, but it might not work for you. Likewise, eating breakfast may work for others but not for you.

If you are more productive in the evening, work in the evening. If you want to fast 16 hours daily because you feel more energized and effective, do it.

Write your own rules. You know what works for you, do that.

Once you start to write your own rules, you will make mistakes, but as Sir Ken Robinson said, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." I follow James Altucher's work, and in his last book, Skip the Line, he identified two types of failure: omission and commission.

1. Omission: If you don't try, you've failed. This kind of failure leads to regret.
2. Commission: If you try and fail, you learn and do better next time.

The problem is that most people are afraid to try unless they have a perfect map to accomplish their goals, so they fail by omission. This habit of creating your map and going for it will bring you tremendous success.

Action Step: Create your rules

Create your rules, be bold, and make mistakes. The biggest mistake you can make is to fail by omission.

4- Surround Yourself With People Who Believe in You

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.” ~ Epictetus

Jim Rohn made a living saying, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." This is true for your mental, physical, emotional, and financial health. So if you tell me the closest five people to you, I can predict your future.

Accountability Circle

If you surround yourself with people who are not afraid to hold you accountable, you will get unstuck anytime you meet them. As Tim Ferris states, "A person's success in life can usually be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have."

People who believe in you are not afraid to hold you accountable, inspire you, and motivate you to do what it takes to overcome your challenges.

Action step: Choose your friends wisely

Surround yourself with people who you aspire to be like. Your friends determine your future. What future would you like to have?

5- Listen and Read Uplifting Positive Content

What we consume always determines the lives that we live.” Becoming Minimalist

To get unstuck and move your life forward, you need to listen to positive content. You need to become aware of what you feed your mind.

Listen to positive content that adds value to your life. I travel 90 minutes daily and listen to audiobooks on my commute. That means every week. I listen to one book. That's 52 books per year.

Over 52 weeks, I can become an expert on any topic. In the last few years, I learned everything I need about peak performance, mental toughness, marketing, clarity, sleep, sugar consumption, leadership, and mindset.

Once you master more than one topic, you can connect different subjects and unrelated dots to create great content or businesses.

Transform your positive information into tools that you can use immediately. For example, if you read a book about sleep, use the information as a tool to sleep better. Likewise, if you read a book about mindset, use the information as a tool to transform your fixed mindset into a positive mindset.

Action Step: How to use books to get unstuck:

1. What information do I know?
2. Can I transform the information into tools?
3. Am I committed to using these tools to move my life forward?

6- Let Go of Your Past

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” ― Steve Maraboli.

Some people claim that holding on to the past can be an intentional choice, just like letting go and moving forward can be a deliberate choice. I disagree with that statement because I don't believe everyone has the tools to move on and let go of their past.

Humans have a unique ability to experience different emotions, and we have a unique ability to remember negative emotions more than positive ones.

This is because we all have a negative bias. The negativity bias is the phenomenon by which humans give more psychological weight to negative experiences than good ones.

Let go of your past, be aware of this negativity bias, be mindful that your brain needs time to process the negative event, and allow yourself to step away and learn from your negative experiences.

Use these five steps to let go of your past.

1. Create a positive mantra you recite whenever your mind is stuck on an experience.
2. Move your body. As Tony Robbins often says, "Motion creates emotion." Changing your body posture and physiology creates new emotions, which is key to letting negative emotions go.
3. Focus on the smallest next step you can take. It could be as easy as deleting a picture of your phone or blocking an email address. There is no reason to stay connected to things or people who drain your positive energy.
4. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is a state of being when your body and mind are in the same place simultaneously. It is about focusing on the present moment without judgment.

7- Create Your Reality

“Every decision in your life is controlled by your values and beliefs.” — Tony Robbins

Understand this framework:

Circumstances → Thoughts → Feelings → Action → Results

I summarize this by saying, your Focus take you FAR in life.

1. Circumstances: Things you can not control — for example, loss of a friend, COVID-19, job loss.
2. Thoughts: It is what you tell yourself. It's your internal thoughts, values, and beliefs.
3. Feelings: It is our emotional reaction to what we are thinking. Most of our feelings are controlled by two big emotions: seeking pleasure or avoiding pain.
4. Action: It is your response to your feelings. Do you want to seek pleasure or avoid pain? Do you want to survive or thrive? Do you want to fight, freeze, or flee?
5. Results: The outcome of your action was created by your feelings and thoughts.

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.” — Tony Robbins

There are things in life you can't control. We call them circumstances. These circumstances create your thoughts. Your thoughts are influenced by what you value or believe. Your results are the outcome of what you choose to do about your feelings or thoughts.

If you understand this framework above, you can get unstuck from any situation.

To summarize, to get unstuck in life and live a fulfilling life, you need to focus on your passion, accomplish your goals, create your own rules, surround yourself with positive people, let go of your past and understand the power of your thoughts.