How To Get Out Of A Rut: A Simple, 3-Step Guide Anyone Can Do

If you are trying to live a happy, healthy, and productive life then one of the things you are going to have to deal with is occasionally falling into a rut.

We’ve all been there before.

It’s when your brain stops working, nothing interests you anymore, and you lose all of your momentum on whatever it was that you were working on.

Honestly, it straight up sucks and can often feel like it will never end.

So today, you’re going to learn a simple 3-step process for helping to drag yourself out of a rut.

These are tactics I’ve learned from people much more successful than me that helps them jumpstart their life whenever they feel like they’ve fallen into a rut themselves.

Let’s get started.

First thing’s first, what is a rut, exactly?

The definition a rut is: “a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change.“

Which is a pretty dang good definition if I do say so myself.

The thing is, when you’re deep in a rut, it can often feel like you’re the only person in the world who has ever felt this way.

But listen…

Even for the world’s top performers, in business, in sports, in anything really—EVERYONE falls into a rut sometimes. 

It’s a natural part of life. 

So if you ever do fall into a rut, or if you feel like you’re in a rut right now that’s never going to end, then I have some good news for you…

This too, shall pass. 

How To Get Out Of A Rut

Step #1) Stop Beating Yourself Up

One of the biggest problems people face when they are in a rut is beating themselves up.

It usually goes something like this:

• First you feel bad, so you don’t do anything
• Then you feel guilty for not doing anything
• So you beat yourself up for feeling bad & not doing anything
• Then you feel even worse than you did before

And this cycle repeats itself over and over, day after day, week after week, until you look up and a month has gone by and you’re still suck in this devastating rut. 

That’s the problem. So, how do you fix it?

Stop Beating Yourself Up!

You are your own worst enemy.

If you don’t love yourself or take care of yourself then you’re never going to get far in this life, friend. 

You’re in a rut, it sucks, and you feel terrible—I get it. It happens to all of us.

But think about it like this for a minute…

If your Best Friend came up to you and told you that they were in a rut and they felt like sh*t what would you say to them?

Would you tell them they’re a hopeless, pathetic, loser that will never amount to anything in their life?

GOD NO! (Or at least I seriously hope you wouldn’t.)

You would listen to them, encourage them, support them, care for them.

So why do you do the opposite for yourself?

Don’t be your own worst enemy, become your own best friend.

Take care of yourself, forgive yourself, and stop beating yourself up for ending up where you did.

You can’t do anything about the past now, the only thing you can do is focus on the present to get yourself out of this situation in the future.

Which leads me to step #2…

Step #2) Do Something, Even If It’s Small

When you’re stuck in a rut, you’ve lost all of your momentum. Which makes doing things really, really, difficult. 

So the most important thing that you need to do is rebuild your momentum.

And you do that by taking ACTION. 

But we’re not talking about running a marathon here, we’re talking about small wins.

• Waking up on time
• Making your bed
• Taking a shower
• Getting dressed
• Going for a walk
• Planning out your day
• Reading a book for 10 minutes
• Working on a project for 10 minutes

You get the idea. 

Identify something easy and small that is beneficial to your life.

• You don’t need to clean your whole room, just make your bed.
• You don’t need to write 1,000 words, just write for 10 minutes.
• You don’t need to go to the gym for an hour, just go for a 10 minute walk.

And funnily enough, usually after you begin doing something for even as little as 10 minutes, once those 10 minutes are up, you’ll keep going because you got motivated to do that thing while you were doing it!

That is how you start rebuilding the momentum that will help drag you out of this rut. 

Which leads us to step #3.

Step #3) Progressive Overload For Your Life

Progressive overload is a concept that is often used in weight lifting.

It refers to gradually adding weight to your exercises so that you get bigger and stronger over time.

• Week 1 you lift 50 pounds
• Week 2 you lift 60 pounds
• Week 3 you lift 70 pounds

And so on and so forth…

While many people use the concept of progressive overload in the gym, they never think of applying that concept to their life.

That’s a mistake because it is through progressive overload that we get better at anything & everything—not just weightlifting.

• The more often you do something, the better you get at it. 
• The better you get at something, the more often you want to do it.

When you apply this concept of progressive overload to your daily life and your habits that’s where the magic is.

You start off small and you gradually ramp it up.

Week 1 – Going to the gym 1x per week
Week 2 – Going to the gym 2x per week
Week 3 – Going to the gym 3x per week

And so on and so forth. 

You do this one habit at a time, one day at a time, and watch as your life gradually changes before your very eyes.

The most important thing to remember while you are going through these motions is that—like all good things in life—it takes time.

You need to be patient.

Trust the process.

Taking one step forward every single day, no matter how small, until you wake up one day and realize that your rut is so far behind you that it feels like it happened to a different person.

Now that’s a good feeling.

Wherever you are, whoever you are, whatever you are doing right now just remember—you are not alone and nothing lasts forever.

Keep on moving forward and you can’t lose.

Your brother,

Steven Correll