You move through life following your routine, doing the same things each day. You don’t notice the rut coming on until — WHAM! — it hits you. Before you know it, life suddenly feels blah and meaningless.
You’ve lost motivation. Creativity and inspiration have flown the coop. Your to-do list piles up, but you don’t know where to begin tackling it — and you can’t really bring yourself to care.
You know doing something different might help, but you lack the energy and motivation to try making a change. Though you may feel stuck, these 11 actions can help you escape a mental rut.
Accept the situation
So, you’re stuck in a rut. It’s OK. This happens, and it won’t last forever. But denial can keep you from making helpful changes.
Telling yourself, “I’m just worn out,” or “I’ll feel more like myself tomorrow,” will only continue the cycle, prolonging your dissatisfaction and distress.
Acknowledge the situation instead to begin remedying the situation.
And don’t forget to have self-compassion — blaming yourself won’t help you feel any better. Let go of self-judgment and focus your energy on moving up and out.
Identify the cause
If you’re stuck in a rut or slump, examining why can help you start pulling yourself up. A little self-exploration sometimes yields answers right away.
What in your life could be causing your feelings? Perhaps it’s work, relationships, or finances.
Ruts can have varied, complicated, and overlapping causes, though, so tracing yours to the source may prove a little challenging.
Maybe it’s related to a temporary situation beyond your control or something requiring more soul-searching than you’re prepared for.
Digging deeper
Asking yourself these questions can help:
What brings me joy?
What makes me unhappy or stressed?
Am I doing things because I want to or because I think I should?
Do my relationships provide meaning and fulfillment?
Am I only sticking with my job/relationship/project because I don’t want to waste the time and effort I’ve invested?
Take a closer look at your goals
Working toward specific goals can motivate you and give you a sense of purpose. Even if a goal lies a little outside your current reach, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Life allows plenty of room to grow, and you can often achieve those goals with some work.
When most of your goals are unattainable from where you are right now, however, you might continue failing to achieve them and become frustrated with yourself.
Instead of beating yourself up over this, ask yourself whether your goals align with what you can realistically achieve. If your (honest) answer is “no,” take your goal down a notch and see if you have more success.
It’s OK to scale back, and it doesn’t mean you have to abandon your loftier goals altogether.
Make small changes
Once you realize you’re stuck in a rut, you might feel tempted to completely restructure the situation by making several large changes.
It sounds great in theory, but overhauling everything at once often doesn’t go as planned. Working on one or two smaller, manageable changes can make the process easier.
Trying to change several habits or behaviors at once can quickly become overwhelming and make it difficult to stick with any of the changes.
Limiting the changes you make can also help you recognize when something isn’t working out, which makes it easier to know when to move on and try something else.
Tip
If you know what’s causing the rut, focus your first changes there.
If your struggles relate to work, for example, think about any changes you can make, whether switching tasks or asking for help around having a difficult (but necessary) conversation with a co-worker.
Remember self-care
If you’re having a hard time identifying what got you into the rut or just feel totally unmotivated to get out of it, do a quick check-in with yourself to make sure you’re looking after your well-being.
Good self-care practices may help refresh your mind and body. They may also boost your energy and motivation, leaving you feeling more capable of reworking your routine in other ways.
You don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle, but try to carve out time for some of the following:
mindless relaxation
breaks from difficult projects
time off when you feel burnt out
regular exercise
time with loved ones
regular, balanced meals
plenty of quality sleep
Give your brain a break
A routine can feel familiar and comforting. Without some variety, though, life may become boring.
You keep doing the same things each day because you’ve grown accustomed to them, but suddenly you start to feel worn down and bored.
Left to its own devices, your brain will try to solve problems by applying patterns or rules you’ve learned from previous experiences.
When you face a new challenge, these strategies may not work as well as before. This leaves you without a solution (and in a rut).
Try to reset your brain by simply unfocusing yourself. It might feel counterintuitive to throw focus to the wind. But doing so may boost your creative problem-solving skills and help you pick up new patterns and routines.
How to unfocus
Let your mind wander.
Taking a long walk.
Spend time in nature.
Doodle on a blank page.
Take a power nap.
The key is to truly zone out without much external stimuli.
Explore your impulsive side
Impulsivity has a bad reputation. Sure, some impulsive actions carry risks, but others are safe and beneficial.
Making snap decisions may increase your confidence and allow you to explore new options that add inspiration and variety to life.
For example, taking a different route home can introduce you to things you’ve never seen before.
Approaching problems from an angle you’ve never considered before can also give you new insight that can help you climb out of the rut.
Take the reigns
Some safe, impulsive actions to embrace:
Say “yes” to more plans, even the last-minute ones.
Sign up for that weekend training opportunity.
Visit that city you’ve always dreamed of seeing.
Volunteer to lead the team project.
Explore a new part of your neighborhood.
Have a realistic approach
Whatever problems you face, realistic thinking may help you find effective methods of solving them.
Sometimes you can change your environment to help you out of your rut. Other times, you’re left with only being able to change yourself.
Ruminating on things you can’t control typically doesn’t help. Neither does crossing your fingers, hoping for the best, or sitting back and waiting for things to magically improve.
Instead, consider things from a realistic perspective — what can you control? Consider which of your actions (or lack of actions) contributed to your rut. You want to address and focus your energy on these.
Break away from perfectionism
While perfection might be a health goal for some, it may sometimes lead to self-sabotage.
If you have high standards, you might spend a long time making sure your work always meets them. Even when you do a great job, you might believe it’s not good enough and keep working.
A strong work ethic is an admirable trait. But it’s also important to recognize that making mistakes is an expected and vital part of growth.
Avoiding a single mistake can often prevent you from getting things done. Plus, it may lead to feelings of anxiety and depression when you don’t succeed in perfection.
Focus instead on putting in your best effort and seeing projects through to completion, even if the endpoint isn’t the perfect one you envisioned. Once you finish something, move on to the next task.
Recognize when it’s not just a rut
Sometimes a rut is just a rut — a temporary state that you can work to improve. It can also indicate something more serious, though.
Living with persistent depressive disorder can feel like being trapped in a rut you can’t escape. It’s marked by:
a depressed mood that lasts most of the day and for more days than not
symptoms that last for at least 2 years in adults
symptoms that last for at least 1 year in children and adolescents
Besides a depressed mood, other symptoms may include:
decreased appetite or overeating
insomnia or hypersomnia
low energy or fatigue
lower self-esteem
difficulty concentrating or making decisions
hopelessness
These symptoms may greatly impact your daily life or remain mild. You may not even realize they’re symptoms because you can still keep up with your usual routines.
But life doesn’t have to feel distant or muted. If you just can’t shake the feeling that you’re stuck in a rut, you have options for support, which brings us to our last tip.
Seek support
Speaking with a mental health professional is great for extra support when you’re feeling stuck, whether you have any mental health symptoms or not.
For many people, therapy serves as a safe space to explore past choices and options for the future. It may help you notice any patterns in your decisions and how you can learn from them to avoid a future rut.
A therapist can offer compassionate, judgment-free guidance and support as you work to:
examine areas of your life that don’t entirely satisfy you
identify existing strategies or habits that aren’t working out and how you can change them
explore positive ways to make changes
Takeaway
A mental rut can pop up out of nowhere and leave you feeling hopeless. But we’re here to help you out of that rut and develop a plan to avoid or minimize the effects of future ones.
Starting with acceptance, other strategies you might try to escape your mental rut may include remembering self-care, exploring your impulsive side, and being realistic.
Speaking with a mental health professional or therapist is another option. They can help you walk through your decisions and provide a plan of action.