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Feeling Stuck Because You’re Not Moving?

Last week, I talked about 16 reasons why you can feel stuck in life and solutions for getting unstuck. One of the reasons I mentioned in the post is that we can feel stuck when we’re simply not moving. 

Why can a lack of movement cause us to get stuck? 

Because we’re either growing or we’re dying. There’s no in-between. Now, let’s break this down a bit further by looking at three common ways we get stuck by standing still and solutions for these challenges: 

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#1. Not Using The Resources We Already Have

Answer this question honestly: do you have any books or programs that you haven’t finished that could help you solve the challenge you’re facing right now?

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got shelves full of books and lots of digital programs online that you’ve purchased to help you grow. 

I love to learn but I don’t want to waste my time or money so  I have to be intentional about using each resource that I purchase.

SOLUTION: TAKE AN INVENTORY OF THE RESOURCES YOU CURRENTLY HAVE

Humour me for a moment and take a look around your office or your house… or maybe your computer.

Take an inventory of all the books, workbooks and programs (digital and hardcopy) you’ve bought over the years. 

If you love spreadsheets (like my daughter) and have a lot of resources to keep track of then you may even want to create a log of all the resources if you have. Then you can keep track of which programs you’ve completed and create goals for the ones you haven’t yet gone through. 

Please know that this is NOT about making you feel guilty, so just toss out any guilt! I’m asking because I want to help you see the resources you already have and help you figure out if you already have the solution right in front of you. 

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#2. Investing In “Shelfesteen” Instead Of Doing The Work

Have you ever purchased a book or a program just so it could sit on your shelf and make you look good when people come to visit? 

I admit, this is kind of a funny one. At a conference my daughter attended last year, Rachel Hollis talked about how some of us have a bookshelf full of all kinds of books that make us feel good about ourselves that we have no intention of actually reading. She called it “shelfesteem”.

Here’s the thing — we don’t learn by just having good books sitting on a shelf or by buying the best programs out there.

There’s no shortcut for actually doing the work. I know that you’re busy and sometimes really tired. I know that you have good intentions and you’re juggling a million things. 

But the truth is that if any of us want to get unstuck, then we need to do the work. It doesn’t have to be complicated or but it does require some effort.  

SOLUTION: ONLY KEEP RESOURCES YOU’LL ACTUALLY READ OR USE 

It might feel a little painful at first to pare down your shelfesteen collection. But it will help you to focus on solutions that you’re actually using instead of holding on to resources that are merely taking up space. 

When doing this exercise, it may be helpful to ask a friend or someone close to you to help you choose the resources you’ll keep. Because let’s face it, sometimes we’re too attached to things to let them go! Look at each resource and ask yourself, “Will I really use this? Do I need this?” 

If you answer “yes”, mark a date on it and give yourself a deadline for when to use it by (perhaps a year or 6 months). That way, if you still haven’t used it within another year, it’s time to get rid of that one as well.  

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#3. Learning A Lot But Not Applying What We’re Learning

With all the knowledge available at our fingertips, it’s really easy to accumulate knowledge without applying it. But knowledge alone isn’t enough to help us grow. 

So why don’t we apply what we’re learning?

For one, it means we need to change and change is hard. Often, we don’t want to change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. 

Another reason we often don’t apply what we’re learning is because change requires new habits, new ways of thinking and new beliefs, and it’s not easy to create these new ways of being and thinking. I believe that many of us don’t want to think because thinking requires effort, time, energy and quiet spaces.

One of my mentors says that thinking is the hardest thing to do next to change. So how do we jump over this hurdle? 

SOLUTION: TAKE SMALL STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Thinking about everything we want or need to change at once is waaay too overwhelming.

But if we begin to take small steps in the right direction, we can start creating positive change and get some momentum going. 

So choose one simple thing to focus on and begin taking small steps to bring that change about. As we change, this growth can bring new people — other leaders — into our lives because we attract who we are. And when we begin to surround ourselves with other leaders who are further along than we are, they will uplevel our thinking.

It just takes one choice in the right direction.  

For example, when I sit in the Leader2Leader meeting, I feel so grateful to be around other leaders who care about people and want to make a difference in our church and local community. These leaders help me to think bigger and to think about possibilities about what we can do. I think about solutions rather than just about problems and I get to collaborate with others and make a bigger difference than I ever could on my own.