Are You Stuck or Are You Striving?

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you aren’t going to stay stuck where you are.” ~Unknown

I often work with people who come to me because they feel very stuck in their lives. They either feel they have no choice about changing their current circumstances or they feel that despite their actions, nothing is changing.

Can you relate to either of these scenarios?

My guess is, that you can! Why? Well because at some point or another, I think we can ALL relate to feeling stuck. But the good news is, there is a way you can move from feeling stuck to striving! 

So first, the simple truth of feeling you have no choice is this… you ALWAYS have a choice. Even if it doesn’t feel that way. Now I get it, sometimes you might feel stuck because the choice is hard. Or maybe you have made a choice to stay stuck because the benefit in some way, outweighed the consequences. Or staying stuck where you were felt “less hard” than striving to make a change.

No one can judge that for you. You have to decide what you are willing to do or not do in your life. But the sooner you realize you are staying stuck in a situation, behavior, marriage, job, etc. because you are choosing to, the more empowered you are going to feel because at that point, even if you choose to keep making that choice, you can focus your energy and efforts on striving for the things you can change vs the things you are not going to change. There is a lot to this topic so I'll save going into greater detail for a future blog post because I also want to cover the other example of stuck vs striving today.

Let’s say, you are working hard but nothing seems to change… taking actions and being busy can make you feel like you are really working hard towards a goal. Then when nothing happens, you feel stuck and miserable because you have put so much effort into something to no avail. However, sometimes we work hard on all the wrong things. And that is in fact why we stay stuck. See some people think that they must just work harder or do more. That isn’t always the case. What many must do is actually start doing more of the right things, the “needle mover”. Or start working on themselves from within before anything on the outside will shift for them. This is where they get stuck. But if you want to really strive and succeed, you’ve got to know first, what you are striving for, why you are striving for it and how to strive with decisive bold actions. 

But how do you do that? How do you pull yourself off the hamster wheel of busy and start taking the bold actions that are going to move the needle forward toward your goals? It begins with clarity and courage. You must have clarity about what you really want and the courage to decide that you will go for it. Once you are decisive about what you want and the actions you must take, then you can begin striving to take bold action. 

However, until you have the courage to get really clear about what you want and are willing to take those bold actions, you will stay stuck! No doubt about it. 

How do you know you are stuck? You probably say things like: 

“I just don’t know what I want.”  
“I don’t know what to do.”  
“I have to get this, that and the other done first.”  
“I would if I could.”
“I can’t.”
“I’ll try.”
“I just don’t have time.”
“I should…”   

These are just a few of the many statements that if you catch yourself saying you might want to think really hard about where you are in your life and if you like being there because you will stay stuck there if you don’t make some changes.

Here’s the interesting thing, most people believe that it’s too hard to strive for another level in their lives, so they allow themselves to stay stuck. But the truth of the matter is, it’s hard to stay stuck too. So, choose your hard… will you stay stuck or will you strive?

Need help getting yourself unstuck? Let me help you gain the clarity and courage you need to decide you aren't going to stay stuck anymore. With the right support, you can strive for a better future. You just have to take that first step. And once you decide that you aren't going to stay stuck any longer, you can begin moving forward with decisive bold actions! Let's go! Sign Up for a KickStart Strategy Session Today!