How to Pull Yourself Out of the Rut

The rut means different things for different people. But one thing that’s common among all the definitions is that people want to pull themselves out of it. When you are in a rut, you lack motivation and you feel exhausted with the mundane that keeps repeating day after day. It’s like the movie Groundhog day. The only thing you want to happen is that you don’t want to feel this way anymore.

I’ve been there, more than a few times for sure. Lately though, I wake up each day with excitement to see what the day brings for the projects I’m working on, people I’m going to see, and things I’m going to learn. I didn’t get here though over night, I worked hard to get to this spot in my life.

I was in a rut for a few years, where I was doubting myself and what I was doing with my career. I knew where I wanted to go with it, just didn’t see any sort of path to get there. So I wound up sucking it up each day and sitting in a cubicle from 8-6 everyday and listening to someone else tell me how to do my job, and do it wrong for the most part. I had always did freelance development in the past, and liked it, but never fully explored it to the point it would need to be to live off of. Well one day I just decided that I was tired of listening to someone else telling me the wrong things to do and working to put money into someone else’s pocket who didn’t respect me. But how was I going to get to where I want to be?

The first step for me was to set a goal and writing it down. That goal back then was to get 5 new clients after 3 months. By setting a goal it was putting me on the hook for something. Now this seems simple and it is. What this does is have the right side of your brain (or the creative side) tell the left side of the brain (or the logical side) about it. It puts your entire brain on the same page.

Then once that’s done, the ball starts rolling. Ideas start to flow on how to achieve this goal. For me it was designating a set number of hours each and every night to making sure that I got something done towards the goal. Before you know it, you are starting to climb up out of that rut. You start to feel so much better and excited for the time you get to work on your goal. Next thing you know, you are out of the rut and walking along the tops of the hills and enjoying every minute of it.

If you are wondering if I obtained those 5 clients in the 3 months, I didn’t. I got them in 6 weeks and I still have those clients to this day.

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