“How Do I Get Out of This Rut?”

The myth that every season of business should be “up and to the right” is a particularly foolish one to believe.

More than that, it’s a DANGEROUS one to believe.

Despite what most of the social media hype machines portray, it is absolutely normal for your business to experience peaks and troughs. Mountains and valleys.

Sometimes you will feel like you are on top of the world, and sometimes it will feel like the world is on top of you.

We call the latter times “being in a rut.”

Before we say anything else – if you feel like your business is a roller coaster that just goes up and down and up and down… and you never feel like you can find your sense of equilibrium.

JUST BREATHE.

This is normal.

But, is there a way to get yourself out of a rut?

Let’s cover 3 mental frameworks that will help you shake free and move forward.

When you’re going through a particularly difficult season in your business, your brain is juggling dozens of emotions and feelings, among which may be:

• Intense agitation
• Fear
• Stress
• Possibly anxiety

In the thick of these moments, your brain will convince you that you will feel those feelings forever. Psychologists call this “permanence” – an inability to be able to imagine a future state in which you don’t feel how you feel right now.

It’s actually an evolutionary response. Our brain has been hardwired to do this because it knows that if we are forced to intensely focus on these negative feelings, we will push ourselves that much harder to come up with solutions to the problems creating those feelings.

(Thanks, evolution!)

Here’s the thing, though. At our very core, we KNOW that the we way feel is NOT permanent. Nothing is permanent.

Every trial, hardship and difficulty is temporary – just as every good, pleasurable, positive moment is temporary. You’ve probably heard the old adage, “this too shall pass.” It is just as true in business as it is in any area of life.

A big piece of pushing past these feelings is context. Stop, look back over your life and career, and remind yourself that you’ve had good seasons that came and went, and you’ve had BAD season that also came and went. Everything is temporary.

In the last section we talked about the power of context and looking at the past as a means of reminding ourselves that the present isn’t permanent.

The second key revolves around the future.

Specifically, your plans for your future. Have a LIFE PLAN – and we’re not just talking about a bucket list of things that it would be nice to do.

We’re talking about an identity that you step into… that has a future version of you in it – a version which has already accomplished everything you want to accomplish and done everything you want to do. Then align your feelings and thoughts with that version of yourself.

Our entire staff, along with nearly all of our clientele, do this through a tool that we call the Morning Formula. This is a document that we each develop individually (privately), and which we read DAILY in order to remind ourselves of who we already are in the future. This is an incredible way to snap out of an outdated mode of thinking (which has lost it’s utility) and re-align with the version of yourself that you are aspiring to become.

Is the fully successful future version of you anxious, fearful, or stressed out by the situation you are currently facing?

If not, then neither should you be. Simple as that.

If you are interested in developing a Morning Formula of your own, there is an entire training on it inside of our Peak Productivity product. You can purchase that here.

We talk a lot in the entrepreneurial space about guarding your time and your calendar.

But when is the last time you heard someone tell you to guard your energy?

Your stance, your focus… your ability to lock in on what matters. You have a finite amount of this, and every distraction robs you of a little bit of it.

GUARD IT like a precious commodity.

How? Let’s break it down.

First – Find and eliminate areas that are a DRAG.

This could be people, tasks, or situations. If you don’t enjoy being around those people or doing those things, find ways to delegate, rearrange, or remove them for your daily life. Even if it’s only for this season.

Anything that causes you to say “I have to,” rather than “I get to,” is probably drag – a think that you feel forced to engage with. Obligated. Begin by removing those things as much as possible.

Second – Invest energy ONLY into things you care deeply about 

Here’s a good “writer-downer” for you:

“When the outcome becomes irrelevant, winner quit QUICKLY.”

If you’ve ever heard the saying, “Quitters never win and winners never quit.”

Bull…shit…

Winners quit ALL the TIME. If the game they are playing no longer matters or no longer serves their ultimate goals, they will stop playing and find new games to play.

If you look at the works of Viktor Frankl, noted author and holocaust survivor, he talks about the idea of purpose being born out of struggle.

You get better through struggle, stronger through struggle, more talented through struggle…

Embracing the difficult moments in your business journey is paramount to going further faster. When you hit ruts, don’t become paralyzed by the obstacles. Instead, remind yourself it’s temporary, remember your life plan, and protect your energy at all costs.