Everything I Do When I'm Stuck In A Serious Rut & Feel Restless

2017 has been a very strange year for me. In so many ways it's been the best year of my life, I've been doing well work-wise, I properly moved out and I finally passed my driving test. Everything sounds great, right? But something has been niggling in the back of my mind and that is that I've felt really restless, I can't quite feel settled and I feel in a huge rut no matter what I seem to do. And this isn't a post to share all the ways that I've got out of it because I still feel pretty restless. But the feeling has become less intense and overpowering and here are a few things that have helped.

PLAN

I'm really into planning, as you might know, if you're at all familiar with this blog. And even though I'm not into making my self super strict rigid plans that leave no room for me to actually be human I do like to have somewhat of an idea of what I want to achieve. When I get super busy with the day to day I really struggle to make plans for the future because I'm too busy feeling like a hamster on a wheel desperately trying to keep up with everything. In the last year I've really got into writing, not quite a journal but a little more than a to-do list and it's been a game changer. I've said so many times that I don't want to get to a point in life where I'm desperately trying to plan everything for the next five years as that's just impossible. But having a plan of what I really watch to achieve in the next month or so is possible and something that I've found a lot of comfort in. Like I said, it's super easy to get caught up in just doing the day to day and that is incredibly important. Something that I've been doing to make reaching my goals a little more tolerable is each week I set myself one goal, it doesn't matter how big or small it is and that is what I work towards as well as all the day to do day stuff. And it doesn't always have to be work-related, it can be personal too. So often I think that we only think that goals and aims should just be work-related but that's not the only thing that life is about.

QUESTION

We all know the feeling of being restless and it's not very fun, to say the least. I hate that no matter what I do I can't seem to catch a break and even though I'm doing everything I love it just doesn't feel quite right. And this is when I start to ask myself the questions that I really don't want to because they're awkward and uncomfortable even though they're just in my mind. I have a little run down of what I go through and this is it:

Is anything going on with work? If so, how can I resolve it or work towards making the situation any better?
Is there anything going on in my personal life that isn't quite right? Friendships or my relationships?
Are my family ok?
What does my diet look like? Am I getting outside enough?
How does my mental health feel?

It might sound silly to ask yourself questions but sometimes we're so busy that there might be something going on and we don't even realise. So stopping for a second and seeing if there is a reason why you might be feeling the way that you do is so helpful. Sometimes there isn't anything but there more than likely is. For me, it's that I've felt a little lost with work and where I want to go next and whilst that's totally ok and normal it took me a while to realise that is where the feeling of restlessness had come from.

RE-ARRANGE

This isn't so much for when I feel restless but it's more when I'm in a total funk. I'm a big believer that your surroundings can have a negative effect on your mood. So on Saturday, I took the morning to rearrange my desk space and it instantly got me out of the funk I'd been feeling. I work from home so I spend a lot of time at that space and it has to be somewhere I enjoy. And I can't afford to buy new things whenever I feel a little bit of a funk with my surroundings. But there are so many ways you can give things a refresh without spending any money and it's probably one of the most cathartic things I can think of. Some people can't stand organising and tidying and I totally get that, I can't stand cleaning the bathroom. But when it comes to my workspace I want it to be a place that I adore being sat at and most importantly it makes me feel inspired to work so I love having a little re-arrange.

STOP SAYING NO

Probably the biggest thing to make a difference in my restless rut is that I've stopped telling myself no. I'm such an advocate of other people never telling themselves no if they want to achieve something. Regardless of how long it takes everyone deserves to give themselves the chance to achieve something great and shutting yourself down the moment that it comes into your mind is such a bad habit to get into. For me, I've always stood in my own way far too often when it comes to work and where I want to go in business. And when you're your own boss you can't do this otherwise you'll never end up going anywhere. And the only person who this effects, in the long run, is me.