Three ways to free yourself from the never ending rut.

This has been me for the last few days going around in circles, bouncing all over the shop. Failing to make progress. Procrastinating to the max. (I have watched more tv this week they I did last month).

There is a lot going on, lockdown is easing, I have picked up a second part time job, I have my fist Covid vaccine coming up, it is my youngest birthday and I am desperate for her to have a lovely day.

So what does my helpful brain do throw about a million things at me all at once, challenge and question my every decision, run through hundreds of “what if” scenarios in the hopes of me mitigating the many unknowns. Effectively send me in an unproductive spiral.

But I am not going to let the monkey part of my brain get the better of me. I will rise to the occasion. (I normally do). So how can we tackle these unproductive cycles…

1- To- Do Lists

I love a good list sometimes even a spreadsheet. There are so many reasons they help.

Making a list makes a goal, knowing a goal give a chance at scoring.

Get it out of your head…

It is so helpful to get it all out of ours heads. Down on paper (or your phone). It is very therapeutic just to start to see what we need to do. It creates a path. Builds a structure around the many things flying around in our minds.

You can see your progress.

The ability to cross something off a list gives us that sense of progress. Even if we cross one thing off the list a day we will see progress. My tip if you are keeping the list on a phone or spreadsheet don’t just delete the things you get done. Strike them through and keep them on the list, this way you don’t lose track of progress. You feel the wins.

You can prioritise more effectively.

Seeing everything together makes it much easier for us to prioritise. Sometimes the lists growing in our heads feel never ending. Get them down and then use a simple method to pick the most important things. List them in order of priority or colour some items red for most important, amber for in the middle, and green for least important.

2- Think positively.

And think about the good stuff more often. 5x more often.

This is often one that is easier said than done for many of us. The first step is to notice if that internal dialogue is getting on an unhelpful track. Our brains are hard wired to look for risks, problems, pain. They do this to try and protect us. Unfortunately if we let them fall into this pattern they can also end up protecting us from our happiness.

Once you notice your head is proving to be the unhelpful wing man. Stop pause rephrase what you are telling yourself. Thank yourself for trying to keep you safe and remind yourself there are many more reasons to be happy than sad, calm than stressed, grateful than disillusioned.

Repeat the positive thinking more than the negative. It takes five good things to out weigh one bad apply this to your thoughts too.

3 – Act!

We often doubt our actions but truly we only learn the right and wrong path by walking it.

Sounds easy right. Well when we are paralysed with indecision it is not always that easy. The truth of the matter is you won’t always make the right decision or the perfect decision. But the only way to fail at decision making is not to decide at all. Choose a path then walk it. You can always turn around or take a side road later down the journey.

Don’t forget follow The Happy Path for more tips and inspiration to live your happiest live.

Fight 4 Happiness