Feeling stuck.
At a standstill.
Bereft of ideas.
At your wits’ end.
It’s an incredibly frustrating feeling, isn’t it?
When I feel stuck, often while writing a post on this blog, or moving forward with my small businesses, my tendency is to fight against it, to struggle, to clamber ahead in a fashion that could be best described as ‘slap-dash’.
I go into panic-mode, trying to get everything done, covering all bases, and yet most of the time, I just end up right back where I started, having achieved nothing, feeling frustrated, and ready to pack it all in. (This generally leads to me getting into bed, curling up under my duvet and watching Gilmore Girls episodes for up to 8 hours at a time. Avoidance behaviour at its very best, right there.)
If you think about it, feeling stuck is a little like being swarmed by shit-loads of bees. You’re out of control, up against hundreds of winged-stingers and you don’t know what to do! Argh! And so you start to flail, you wave your arms around, you shout, you run in circles and you do everything and anything to avoid being stung.
And yet does this behaviour help?
Nope. Not one iota.
Bee-experts actually advise that if you’re swarmed by bees, the best thing to do is to STAY CALM and retreat slowly. Waving your hands around and screaming your head off will only make the situation worse – the bees get freaked out, because they’re scared – and so their innate reaction is to sting.
(And now you can see how a situation like this can get out of hand, pretty darn quickly).
Being swarmed by bees is like being stuck.
So what would happen if the next time we feel stuck, we thought about the bees and just followed the bee-expert advice instead?
Stay calm.
Make a cup of tea.
Switch off your laptop.
Sit in the sunshine.
Stare at your cat/beloved/the wall.
Eat some chocolate or drink a green smoothie.
Do some yoga.
(Whatever floats your boat – the purpose here is to just stop and calm down).
Retreat slowly.
Write down 2 teeny-tiny steps a day, for the next 7 days, that could move you towards feeling less stuck. For example, if you’re struggling to motivate yourself to run in this hot weather, you could perhaps set yourself the goal of running at 8pm two times this week, for 30 minutes. It’ll be cooler at 8pm, and it’s only for 30 minutes. You’re not asking too much of yourself, and yet you’re doing something (which is far better than doing nothing and subsequently kicking yourself for doing nothing which generally leads to feeling stuck which is an incredibly frustrating feeling isn’t it?)
It’s starting to feel like Groundhog day around here.
Think of the bees, dude.
Oh and ps: Anyone feeling the need to watch the movie, ‘My Girl’ now? Remember the bee chasing scene? LAST TIME I WATCHED THAT MOVIE, I CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED.