Stop Feeling Stuck In 3 Dead-Simple Steps.

Have you ever found yourself in a complete state of overwhelm, unable to take any action and make progress? Your to-do list is piling up, and deadlines are near, yet you still sit there scrolling Youtube to avoid reality.

We’ve all been there. It’s a bad place to be: nothing you do seems to work, the mountain feels impossible to climb and you have no energy to do even the most basic tasks.

You know what you need to be doing but you still can’t bring yourself to do it. You don’t have a knowledge problem, you have an execution problem.

Hitting these plateaus is part of the growth curve. I’m going to show you how to flip them on their head and see them as a good thing.

Follow these steps to break through a plateau and get back to progress.

There are three types of people when it comes to encountering a plateau:

1. The hobbyist: they give up and go home.

2. The panicker: they chug more coffee and hack away.

3. The master: they welcome a plateau as if they expect it and they know exactly what to do to move through it.

Here’s how to become a master:

Following this framework doesn’t prevent hitting walls and plateaus, as that’s part of life. Instead, it gives you a step-by-step guide on exactly what to do so you can get back on the horse and start riding.

The longer you stay in these phases, the worse it gets. You drop good habits, progress grinds to a halt and it takes a lot of energy to get the flywheel going again. Momentum is your best friend when it comes to making progress so you want to protect it at all costs.

Change your mental state.

No one makes good decisions in a place of stress and anxiety. You need to change your mental state and bring yourself to a place of calmness so you can start thinking clearly.

Start by:

1. Movement: get outside and walk in the sunlight or do an intense workout class.

2. Temperature change: rapid temperature change through ice baths and saunas will change your mental state.

3. Music: who doesn’t feel better after listening to their favourite tunes.

4. Groundedness: get in the grass bare feet and meditate.

5. Be patient: it will take some time.

Studies have spoken about doing a challenging activity to stop procrastinating on your day-to-day tasks. Try a Crossfit class and everything else for the day will seem a little easier.

Okay, now you should be able to start thinking more clearly and realise that it’s not as bad as you first thought.

Start viewing these challenges as an opportunity to grow and make changes in your life.

Assess The Situation.

Once you’re thinking clearly again and feeling more positive, you need to ask yourself the key questions to see what’s going on.

What does the data actually say is happening?

Lack of clarity causes anxiety, so you need to get accurate data to see what’s going on, don’t make assumptions.

Numbers don’t lie, so gather the data relevant to what you’re working on and make an assessment. Try to separate it from your worth and focus on taking the appropriate action.

What’s the obvious thing I’m missing?

Chances are you’ve missed the basics, which is okay, you need to figure out what it is. This could be a habit you’ve dropped or forgetting to ask an expert who you already know for help. Zoom out and explore every avenue.

What would (insert your hero's name) do in this situation?

Think of a person you can relate to and want to emulate their success and think what would they do? We all know at least one person who we look up to, even if we don’t know them. Now chances are they have bad days too, but they still seem to get things done. So put yourself in their shoes, act like them, think like them and get it done.

Who can help me?

List out all the names who come to mind and get them on the phone to talk things through.

Even if you don’t think someone can help you, give them a call anyway. Having someone who will listen while you offload and run through the situation out loud will help a lot.

What’s the next action I need to take?

Stop focusing on the top of the mountain as it makes overwhelm even worse. Focus on the next action you need to take and go from there. Prioritise what would have the most impact.
Break it down into tiny, achievable steps and give yourself a reward for each task you move through.

Build action and momentum.

Action is the anxiety antidote. Start somewhere, it doesn’t matter how small or meaningless it may feel.

Okay here’s the juicy part. You’re now in a better frame of mind, you know what you need to be doing, but you’re still not ready to take action.

You don’t have a knowledge problem, you have an execution problem. Stop scrolling and overloading your brain with more information. Output is more important than input here.

You need two know two things:

1. The levers to pull.

2. The reason you’re not pulling them.

So if you’re looking to improve your fitness, you need to start working out. If you’re looking to grow your business, you need to start making sales calls.

Chances are, you have a grand vision in your head of the dream body or the dream car. Pull goals aren’t enough and if you’re not taking action, then that’s proof that you need more. It’s okay not to feel a constant surge of optimistic motivation and passion about moving forward.

Ignore the gurus and trust me on this one.

As any great entrepreneur will tell you, you need to work with what you have in the current situation you’re in.

So, if the dream vision board isn’t enough, take a look at your current surroundings. Take some time to pull out the things you’re avoiding into the light which make you uncomfortable. This can be admitting that you hate your current job or that you’re afraid of what your parents might think if you fail.

Sit with these feelings and ask yourself what your life will look like in 10 years' time if you don’t start taking action. It will most likely be the same or worse. This should scare the hell out of you.

We call this, fear setting. Fear proved to be a better motivator than pleasure, despite what the gurus say. I’m not saying it’s sustainable long-term, but use it to get to the next level and out of your current situation. Now you can start worrying about finding passion because it’s a lot easier when you don’t hate your current situation.

There was a study carried out using rats placed into a pipe with cheese at the end, which started to lure them out. They then placed cats looking to hunt them at the other end of the pipe and found that the rats moved a lot quicker to escape.

The final part of this is gamification. You need to remember that playing games like fitness and business are infinite, you don’t ever win. Not even Bazos has won. Okay maybe. But still, you’re not Bazos (yet) so you need to gamify the process.

This means you need to reward yourself along the way to keep things interesting and feel like you’re accomplishing something. Even if you’ve made 300 sales calls and got 300 rejections, reward yourself for the effort instead of beating yourself up for making $0.

This links into the dopamine reward and motivation system and makes everything more fun. Create rewards from small things like a coffee after writing that article to the dream holiday after landing your first client. This stuff works.

If you find yourself in a situation you don’t want to be in right now, then follow these steps. It’s not easy, but it will help you lift yourself out of the hole. It’s okay to be in these places, but you can only rely on yourself to do the work to get out of them and make real change.

If you have any other methods of dealing with similar experiences then I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me a reply here or drop me a DM on Twitter.

Have a great week.

Tom Scourfield