I used to work for a company that owned hospitals and healthcare centers, doing accounting. The majority partner in the business would have the same order for lunch, every single day. A turkey sandwich with potato chips. Every single day, he ate the same lunch. They ordered lunch from TGIF, so it wasn’t like he didn’t have any other options.
I always wondered if he ate the same breakfast every morning, and the same dinner every evening. He was definitely a man stuck in a rut. Rush Limbaugh says that when you are in this experience, you “are out of contact with your own genius”. We all have this happen in our lives at some point and time. The rut is a place of safety. We are in fear of the unknown, so the rut is a place of safety, because it is always the same. When we turn the page, who knows what might happen?
“Sometimes following your path means: getting lost, being stuck, going backwards, forging ahead, blazing your own trail, and eventually…, making your way home.”
– Zella.
So what Zella is telling us, is that being in a rut, can actually be part of the journey – the point is once we recognize that we are stuck, that we start going backwards, or forging ahead out of the rut. That we blaze our own trail off the beaten path to our destination. That we escape the rut, to get back in contact with our personal genius. This is because living our lives on purpose through our personal genius, is when we know that we are home.
When we listen to our personal genius, our souls voice, it leads us to amazing places. We find ourselves living and doing things that before we would only read about. Things that we could never imagine ourselves doing. It is a conscious choice to listen to this voice that emanates from deep within.
“Each morning you awaken to a new day. This day looks like every day you’ve had before. That is unless something happens to shake you out of your rut. This something can be a tragedy, a blessing, or a conscious choice. Two of these lie outside of you and one within. Which is your preference?”
– Red Hawk
The choices that come from the outside are harder to deal with. The tragedy knocks us down and makes us a victim. Even the blessing, is a harder choice, because the blessing usually starts out like the tragedy. It becomes the blessing because we realize that we that we were stuck and needed our world turned upside down to shake us loose. The result of the blessing is that we took life’s lemons and made them into lemonade.
How do we recognize that we are in a rut? One sign is reliving the past. It happens because we are comfortable there. We may complain about it, but we make no movement to actually change it. Another is repeating the past mistakes over and over again. Why do we repeat patterns of mistakes? Because we have convinced ourselves that this time will be different. My mom was married five times, and every single man she married, she met in the bar that she was working in. One of the things that every single man had in common? They were all alcoholics. I remember telling her as a teenager, that maybe if she met men some place besides work, it might work out better?
“You must learn a new way to think, before you can master a new way to be.”
– Marianne Williamson
This is how we get out of the rut. We don’t try to solve problems in our life with the same thinking that created them. We step up and out of the rut. And we begin blazing a new trail. So instead of stepping backward into the rut, step forward into growth. See where life is taking you. Listen to the voice of your soul, and wake up. Live your life with the intention to grow, live your life from your true reason and purpose for being here, and love your life with a passion that is on fire!
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
The new thing I do everyday is talking to a complete stranger, an unsuspecting victim. 😉 I find my days a lot more energetic now.
I met an actor a couple of months ago that does the same thing. He stops at hotel bar/restaurants and introduces himself to strangers with a specific question or request. He was recently in the Hell or High Water movie. Very interesting guy. I was at a hotel bar eating dinner and having a drink with some other ladies I met at the seminar I was attending. We had a great discussion with him.
Thankyou for your thoughts Sheryl
Love your article though I must confess i am not one to get stuck. Getting lost is mostly by choice and I make a point to do something new each day even if it is a simple as eating something new. That being said you give us great information that we can use. You are a guide my friend