Feeling stuck in a career rut is common. When facing a big life changing decision or uncertain change, people can feel stuck in a career rut. Being made redundant with no obvious way forward can make you feel very stuck. The feeling can be very dehabilitating – paralysing.
The good news is that being stuck in a career rut can be tackled, but it is hard to do by yourself as you are too close to yourself.
I find that when I’m feeling stuck and not taking action, there’s always a good reason. It’s just a question of working out what the reason is. And asking a question is a good way to pinpoint the reason. Here are 12 tips to help you when you feel stuck:
12 simple tips to help address stuckness
1) Do tasks one at a time and clear away everything else from your desk and mind
2) Write tasks very clearly and specifically so you are left in no doubt about what you need to do
3) Keeping your final outcome in mind, identify the first step. Don’t worry about the 9th or 10th step until you’ve taken the first
4) Create a 1 page plan for projects especially a big project like a new career
5) Segment tasks to make them feel clearer and help you prioritise
6) Have a ‘stuckness audit’ with yourself, for a project or your company to identify the ‘don’t knows’
7) Identify the consequence of the stuckness and the benefits of taking action
8) Check in with yourself regularly and make time to ask yourself a self-reflective question
9) Get a career coach or mentor to help you see the wood for the trees. If you are standing in the middle of the trees, it is understandably hard to see the path out into the clearing.
10) Speak the truth. Express what you see, feel or hear when you notice stuckness. Simply articulating it can help shift it
11) Acknowledge that stuckness and inaction is okay sometimes and it isn’t normal or realistic to have growth spurts all the time, otherwise it would be Spring all year round!
12) Think of someone who you admire. Look at the problem through their eyes. What would they do?
‘They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself’ Andy Warhol
If you found these tips useful, and feel stuck in a career rut, why not download our free report on Skills to give you new insights about how you could energise your career? Click on this link now: