Episode 71 – 3 Strategies To Move Forward When You’re Stuck

 

Episode 70- 3 Strategy To Move Forward When You’re Stuck

Sometimes we just feel stuck and fall back a few steps to catch our breath. We revert to what we know. Moving forward in life can become challenging and we don’t know where to turn to, or how to move forward.

Sometimes we just feel stuck and fall back a few steps to catch our breath.  We revert to what we know. Moving forward in life can be challenging. When this happens, it can be outright impossible to move forward with your goals and dreams.

Maybe you’re feeling stuck at managing an unhealthy pattern like quitting smoking, or you want to hit the gym and start a new fitness/yoga routine. You were super motivated and ready to move forward but something’s stalled your progress, and caused you to feel stuck. Or maybe you were starting a new project that you just can’t get done?  You’re literally feeling stuck, like you can’t move forward and your body is feeling the pain as a result. You might even feel trapped in a position that you don’t like, and all you want to do is “go back”. I wish “go back” to the way things were and somehow life would just be easier that way.

As I said in episode 70, I’ll be interviewing some nurses and nurse leaders over the upcoming sessions on how they have managed to stay grounded during these tough times. This episode is a bridge to that series. When you’re grounded, you can move forward. But sometimes we can’t move forward if we’re stuck in the past, or facing burnout. We might move forward but there’s something keeping us stuck. The trend I was noticing, and it’s pretty common with most people. It’s that people want to “go back” to where they once were, when things were easier and simpler. We’ve just come out of 3 very difficult years with COVID-19 in hospitals and nurses have faced some trying times…and now’s the time to get “unstuck” and move forward with our lives.

Here Are 3 Easy Steps To Move Forward When You’re Stuck

1. Look Back At How Far You’ve Come.

   Your first step forward when you’re feeling stuck is to build-in a few moments of reflection. Just take a step back for a moment. When you can look back at how far you’ve come, take a look at steps you’ve taken and how you’ve gotten to where you are.  When you’re stuck, look at where you are now. Reflect with pride at the good choices you’ve made. It just feels so good when you can look back. Reflection supports us personally and professionally.

   When I’m working with clients who feel stuck, I often ask them to look at themselves from a different angle, or as someone else in their life. We literally stand-up and look at the chair the person was sitting-in. What looks different today from the past 3 months? What advice would you give yourself, as the new version of you today? How did you get here? This will create a shift in energy that’s sufficient to support my client at taking a look back in order to move forward and make the progress they desire. It can shift an unhealthy pattern, and that’s really important to do.

2. Live your truth.

   In order to move forward in a new chapter in life, and get unstuck, you have to uncover your truth. When you’re isolated from an old reality and feeling stuck from moving forward, that’s when the real work comes-in. So be gentle and patient with yourself. Be patient with others too. Your truth is yours based on your own values and beliefs, not anyone else’s.

   Seek to uncover the underlying values and beliefs that are getting in the way and stopping you from progressing. The best way I know how to do this is by journaling. You can also talk to a really good friend, or just take the time to ask yourself these questions: What’s really important to me right now? What’s really keeping me from moving forward with this?

   Once you access those answers, the solution might present itself rather quickly.

   Remember this: your truth can be drastically different from immediate family, from your community members, and even your colleagues. And if you’re a parent, it’s your job to stay grounded in your truth – to keep your loved ones emotionally safe, and connected to those values. That’s our job as parents.

   3. Reconnect With Your Why

   When you feel stuck and it’s preventing you from moving forward, the main reason is because you’ve lost sight of why you want what you want. Listen to the episode on your blueprint for happiness. What that says is that your happiness depends upon 2 things: your thoughts and your situation (Discussion of desire to be married at 30 years old but you’re 32 and single, you’ll be miserable. have to change your thoughts or you change your situation in order to achieve happiness. If you’re stuck, you need to reconnect with why this is important. Just as I mentioned in the last point, you also have to live your truth, and reconnect with what’s really important to you. Is being married at 30 years old your truth and can you change that to connect with your why.

   If you’re stuck on an exercise regime, and getting to the gym, and that really grounded you but you no longer do it, reconnect with why you started started that routine, or ended it for that matter. What was it that motivated you towards your new path in the first place?

   You might need to tap-into a new reward system that will ignite the passion and drive in you, which will definitely help you to move forward. One of my earlier podcast episodes can help you shift gears in the area of motivation as it relates to a health goal. Much like living your truth, believing your truth and acknowledging your truth can help you regain some necessary momentum to open up the next chapter for you.

Bonus: When all else fails, practice gratitude for what you do have.

Gratitude is proven to help us feel positive emotions, and shift our energy. See podcast episode on How To Give & Receive Joy Each Day Through Gratitude here.  Gratitude can improve our health, help us deal with adversity, and ground us when times are tough. It can also help us build healthy relationships with the ones we care for the most. Here is a gratitude meditation that you can listen to, if you want to try this guided practice for yourself. I’ve also linked up to an article on the improvement of heart health through gratitude, from Berkley.