Working On Being Unstuck

There was a period in my life where I was stuck and couldn’t get unstuck.  It was stunning for me. I made it through grad school, officially had a “Dr.” in front of my name and couldn’t get off the couch. Each morning, I’d wake up with a pep in my step, make some coffee, watch the morning news on the couch, then get stuck there until one in the afternoon!  

I’d get overwhelmed by things I wanted to accomplish, then as the minutes ticked by, the day would be considered a wash because in my mind, it way too late in the day to get anything done.

When I was in college, my friends were hyper competitive women who had huge goals.  They would joke that if you were home watching TV and one of those vocational school commercials would come on, the least you can do it sign up for a program.  

Back then, staying home because of a fever was reason to be teased. There was no excuse for not using a day to its absolute fullest – after all, the energy of youth will eventually fizzle.  The group goal was to be well positioned when burnout happened.

Fast forward ten years, each of them became incredibly successful with beautiful families, fabulous houses, and doting equally successful husbands.  They all ate the proverbial elephant and I couldn’t get past panic attacks when faced with getting my life moving. I’d watch their lives on Facebook, while in my pajamas, TV blaring tons of vocational school commercials, and no clue on how to dig my way out.  It sucked.

One morning, I decided that I was going to write everything that needed to be done to get out of the rut.  Guess what happened next…I read through the list, had a panic attack, and spent the rest of the day laying on the couch.  For a long time, just getting a list on paper was the limit on what I was able to accomplish. Crossing anything off on the list other than, “write a list,” was almost a miracle.  Something had to be done.

So, I decided to distract myself from the magnitude of eating an elephant and broke it all into manageable pieces. Just like the first day of grad school, I couldn’t get distracted by everything that had to be done to graduate.  I had to take it one hour at a time and optimize a process that was overwhelming and gave me anxiety.

Looking back, I wish someone sat me down and instead of saying, “it's going to get better,” actually helped with giving me tools on how to make it better.  For me, learning how to focus on one thing at a time really helped. I kept looking at the goal and the journey was overwhelming. Like any other journey, take it one step at a time.  Break it into pieces, and focus on little steps. Eventually, all the little pieces come together to create a pretty amazing accomplishment.

You got this.  Make a list a take it one step at a time.