Here’s What To Do When You’re Feeling Stuck In Life

Stuck.

Have you ever felt stuck in life? Like no matter what you do, you can’t seem to move forward or pick up momentum? You’re out of bright ideas, and your old tricks don’t work anymore. You’ve self-helped yourself to death and you still can’t seem to find that shimmer of inspiration that used to burn so bright. Your favorite music falls flat, your favorite books become unreadable. Every day feels the same as the last. You’re just fucking stuck.

Here’s what I’ve learned about being stuck: it sucks. It’s depressing, and it’s soul-sucking, and it’s frustrating, and it leaves you feeling hopeless and useless. Being stuck can lead to mental health disorders like depression and anxiety. It can cause insomnia or make you want to sleep all day. It can leave you feeling empty and helpless, like nothing you do matters.

If you’re reading this and you’re stuck, here’s what I want you to do.

Open your hands and lift them to the sky. Close your eyes. Scream and yell and curse – get it all out. And then beg. Beg with every fiber in your being for something to grasp onto. Beg like your life depends on it. Beg and plead and cry and bargain that some higher being will place in your hand the thing you need to get unstuck.

Then open your eyes.

Chances are, your hands are still empty. And that’s the beauty of being stuck. You’re untethered. You have nothing holding you down, nothing holding you back. You’re free.

With your empty hands, you’re going to create something new. From scratch. This is the hard part.

Dig deep. Take a walk down memory lane, all the way back to your eight-year-old self. What did she love to do? What was he passionate about? What set your little, innocent, untainted soul on fire?

This is the clay in which you will mold your new beginning. Because, if we’re honest, being stuck isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a sign. It’s an ending. It’s you breaking up with what wasn’t working before, no matter how much it seemed like it was. In a way, your stuckness is a blessing. You’ve been let go from something that no longer serves you, whether you liked it or not. Thank you, next.

With that clay in your hands, you’re going to walk out into your world with a new set of eyes. You’re goal is to open yourself to curiosity. This is important. Your closed-off mind is what got you stuck. Now, it’s time to open it.

This curiosity is going to lead you down paths that are fresh and new and scary and invigorating and challenging and confusing. Stay curious. Do not, and I repeat, do not shut down. Do not run. Do not hide. Do not burrow back into your cave that you called home throughout your stuckness. You must remain open. You must be willing. It’s going to be hard, but it’ll be worth it.

Along the way, you’re going to pick up little pieces of you that you never knew existed. You’re going to find remnants of passion and inspiration you thought were long gone, and you’re going to find the hope and courage to reignite them.

And then, one day, you’re going to wake up with hands so full you can’t close them. You’re going to be so fulfilled and so on fire that your stuckness will be a distant memory. Your life will be brimming with new beginnings and fresh starts and exciting challenges, and you’re going to take them all on with a newfound joy and passion.

But there’s one more thing you’re going to do, and this is important. The moment you wake up from your stuckness, the moment your lungs fill with the exhilarating breath of inspiration you’ve spent days or weeks longing for, you’re going to stop. And with your next breath, you’re going to say thank you. Because without the depressing, debilitating, soul-sucking stuckness, you’d never have learned that you can build a life you love from scratch.