Dead End

                                                             

I see this a lot.

On social media and specially currently In real life too. Conversations I overhear. People feel stuck in place. They don’t think they can make forward momentum in their lives.

It’s a tough position to be in. It can feel all-consuming, a heavy feeling that wraps around you like a wet blanket. There are many reasons why you might be feeling stuck or feeling trapped in life.

And there are also potential solutions.

                                                  

There’s no overnight cure, but maybe you can feel better in three sleeps. Or four sleeps? Who knows?

But you’ll never know if you don’t continue the search for the right information.

Feeling Stuck in Life Reason 

1: You Think There’s No Hope for Any Change and You're Feeling Lost 

Feeling stuck starts with your thoughts. If you think you’re stuck, you’re stuck. It’s as simple — and as complicated — as that.

Thoughts create your situation. They frame how you see the world. They are, in fact, the foundation of your current paradigm. It’s so easy to use your thoughts to create a convenient narrative about why you're worthless and can’t go anywhere. I’ve done it all the time. But the problem with that is that it’s NOT true. There’s always something that you can do.

But you won't be able to move forward unless you stop thinking thoughts like, "I feel stuck in life. I feel trapped in my life. I'm stuck."

Negative thinking is a slippery slope.

In a way, it’s adaptive. It keeps you in place, in your perceived safety. When you think yourself into a corner, you don’t have to go anywhere. The ego wants that because your ego wants to keep you safe and secure. Every time that I’ve told myself that there’s no hope is because, deep down, I’m scared, and my silly brain thinks that moving through fear will lead to my destruction.

It’s simply not true.

Potential Solutions to Get Unstuck From Your Mindset and Stop Feeling Lost in Life

Here are a few things to try if you're feeling trapped or lost and think that there's no hope of any change in your life.

Realize that you are the one who created these thoughts, and you can be the one to create new thoughts. If you start thinking about possibilities, might you start to see possibilities?

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Talk to someone who you see as NOT stuck. What do they think that you don’t? How did they create so many opportunities in their life?

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Make sure you’re taking care of yourself. If you’re tired and dehydrated, it’s only natural to think negative thoughts and begin to feel so lost in life. The body and the mind are related, and your brain will pull from your physical state to think thoughts that it feels relate to your physical feelings.

Let’s move on to the next reason.

2: You’re Stuck in a Dead-End Job 

Maybe you hate your job. So many people do. They feel trapped.

What can you do if that’s the case?

It’s hopeless, right?

Wrong.

You have more power than you realize. Your life is not falling apart. You’re not stuck in a prison working for extremely low wages even though it might feel like it at times. There are probably small ways that you can create some opportunity for yourself.

But it’s totally understandable. You spend so much of your life at work that, if you hate what you do, it can have a profound negative impact on your life.

For many people, work becomes life. If you love what you do, this is fine. But if you hate your work, you hate your life.

It’s time to get your life back.

Potential Solutions to Get Unstuck at Work and Figure Out What You Want to Do With Your Life

1. Focus your thoughts on the tasks that you enjoy.

There has to be something about your job that brings you joy.

                                             

Even if it’s the small amounts of time that you get by yourself when you’re cleaning up.

Could you use that time to create a new future for yourself? Could that be your own private space to mentally create a new reality instead of repeating the 'Im stuck" loop in your head? Likewise, focus your full attention on these joyful tasks. There are going to be times in your work that you hate. Thankfully, you get to choose your attitude during the times that you enjoy.

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2. Always look for other opportunities to figure out what to do with your life

This might be viewed as shady by some, but I think it’s realistic.

                                           

You are a valuable human being with real skills. You should always be scanning the horizon to see how you can best offer those skills.

You’re not required to be in one job until the end of time. You can go somewhere else. It’s often an outdated mental model, likely handed down to you when you were young, that is telling you that you can’t go anywhere. You can. It may not be a perfect opportunity, but you can make incremental moves in your life. Before you know it, you’re doing work you love.

You're not always going to be saying, "I don't know what to do with my life."

And with a question like, "What do I do with my life?" it can be hard to even know where to begin.

And it's so difficult to answer because what works for one person probably won't work for you.

Plus, if you think about it, you're most likely looking for answers to different questions.

In this article, we're going to go over the questions behind the questions.

It's time to figure out what you need to do to analyze your life and discover your purpose.

A lot of people start here because they think that the whole point of life is to figure out the career they're supposed to be doing.

This is what society tells you--that once you're old enough to begin your professional life, you just need to know what you're supposed to be doing--and then go do it. But how often do you make decisions like that? Isn't it the case that you learn about yourself through a slow process of discovery?

                                                      

Think back to when you were a child.

Did you just pop out of bed, know what you wanted to do that day, write down a plan in your child-sized notebook, and then go about doing it? Of course not. You explored. You stumbled upon what you liked bit by bit. This is always how it works, but we get tricked by society and its famous "planning mindset." The reality is this: a life plan doesn't just magically materialize in the blink of an eye.

Your career path is a series of steps, a process of discovery.

But how do you start the process? You start with a question that's easier to answer. How do I choose a job? A job is smaller than a career. That's obvious. But how do you go about picking one? Well, what are your talents?

What do you enjoy doing? Going back to the child analogy, what made your eyes light up when you were a kid? Do you even remember?

If you're stuck and can't think of anything, talk to the people who know you best--your parents, your friends--or maybe your neighbors or even your current coworkers, if you're working in a job that you're trying to get away from.

                                             

The answer is always going to come from inside you, but you might need some help to drag it out.

If you're a person who likes working with their hands, look for jobs that allow you to do that.If you're a person who is more cerebral and in your head, then maybe you want a job that values your thinking skills.

If you know yourself, then the kinds of jobs you might enjoy will become obvious. But I'm guessing you didn't really come here to know what kind of job you should apply for.

I'm guessing something deeper is going on.

Actually, I'm not guessing--I know this.

How?

Because all humans are meaning-making creatures. We're not on this planet simply to get old enough to work, find a job to do for a few years, and then die.

We crave purpose. And in purpose there is meaning.

 Purpose of Life?

You came here thinking, "I don't know what to do with my life" and now you have to deal with your ultimate purpose?

I know. It seems like a lot to handle. And no one article will deliver your purpose to you in a neat package. But an article can get you thinking about what it means to live a purposeful life. There can be as many purposes in life as there are people on this planet, so it's time to uncover another question you might actually be asking.

What is my purpose?

Your purpose is not my purpose, and it's not your mother or father's purpose. It's your own. And it emerges from your day-to-day life. It's in the everyday life that you find what you're made of and then use those lessons to set your direction.

                                                              

Here are two more sets of questions to ask yourself...

1) Start by asking yourself some basic questions:

What are your goals? Where do you want to go in the future? Who do you want to become? What kind of job would make you happy? What kind of relationship would make you happy?

2) Then, ask yourself these more specific questions:

Do you have any skills or talents that could help you get there? Are you willing to put in the time and effort to learn new things? Can you see yourself doing something else?

Questions upon questions.

It can make anyone's head spin.

But how will you find answers if you're not asking questions?

And the more questions you can ask yourself, the better.

Because that's how you'll stir up the greatest variety of answers.

And that's what you're here for, right? The answers to your brief time on this planet.