Monday, December 04, 2006
Getting Unstuck
Dear Darren,
I’m writing a Toastmaster’s speech called, “Stuck in a Rut.” Sometimes we’re stuck in little ruts, like we can’t seem to get through the pile of mail stuck on the kitchen table. Other times it’s bigger ruts, like we hate our job but don’t think we have any other options. In order to get out of a rut, it’s important to be able to see our way out. In my speech, I talk about two tricks to help see our way out of the rut. I learned them when I was in school training to be a life coach.
The first trick is to imagine that the discouraged thinking in your head is not really you, it’s just a gremlin. I’ve noticed that you have a gremlin that gets easily discouraged whenever you have a tough problem to solve. We should write down what he says to you so you can get familiar with his underhanded tactics and learn to quit listening to him.
The second trick is to imagine you have a successful future self who solved the problem that has you stuck in a rut. What would that future self say? He’d give you the answer of course! But what if he wanted you to figure it out yourself? Then what would he say? He would give you encouragement, wouldn’t he? We should write that encouragement down so you can practice telling it to yourself whenever you have a tough problem to solve and you feel stuck in a rut.
Mom
I’m writing a Toastmaster’s speech called, “Stuck in a Rut.” Sometimes we’re stuck in little ruts, like we can’t seem to get through the pile of mail stuck on the kitchen table. Other times it’s bigger ruts, like we hate our job but don’t think we have any other options. In order to get out of a rut, it’s important to be able to see our way out. In my speech, I talk about two tricks to help see our way out of the rut. I learned them when I was in school training to be a life coach.
The first trick is to imagine that the discouraged thinking in your head is not really you, it’s just a gremlin. I’ve noticed that you have a gremlin that gets easily discouraged whenever you have a tough problem to solve. We should write down what he says to you so you can get familiar with his underhanded tactics and learn to quit listening to him.
The second trick is to imagine you have a successful future self who solved the problem that has you stuck in a rut. What would that future self say? He’d give you the answer of course! But what if he wanted you to figure it out yourself? Then what would he say? He would give you encouragement, wouldn’t he? We should write that encouragement down so you can practice telling it to yourself whenever you have a tough problem to solve and you feel stuck in a rut.
Mom
