This article is contributed by Jason Dirkham.
So there it is. A couple of years after quitting your day job and starting your own business, you find yourself here. In a mire. Unable to see a clear path forward, and feeling as though luck, insight, and motivation have all abandoned you. Doubt starts to flood your mind and you’ve become deeply jaded and disheartened by everything.
Or maybe you never did make the plunge, and you’re still working in a day job you hate, constantly feeling as though you’re robbing yourself of the opportunity to do better, and spend your time working on something that actually gives you a sense of fulfillment.
Neither of these scenarios is exactly rare. It goes without saying that any professional endeavor is beset by risk, turmoil, uncertainty, and hardship. Many entrepreneurs — even some of the biggest and most successful and well-known — fail at numerous endeavors before making it big. And plenty of other people hit stumbling blocks in their careers before righting themselves.
The key to living a successful and fulfilling professional life doesn’t lie in never failing, or faltering. It lies in getting up and moving forward, and in not allowing yourself to rest in a rut, once you find yourself in one.
On that note, here are a few suggestions for getting yourself out of a rut in your professional life, so that you don’t have to suffer the horrible realization that you’re letting time run away from you.
Consult your gut — have you lost belief and enthusiasm in your work? If so, what will it take to get it back?
Of course, it’s silly to think that you’ll have a great time every day in your job of choice. No matter how much you believe in, and love, what it is that you do, there are inevitably going to be times when you have to grind through on too little sleep, when you don’t feel like it, and when circumstances seem to be waylaying your professional progress in the most irritating kinds of ways.
That being said, though, if you find that you’re never enthusiastic about your job — if you no longer feel that you’re doing meaningful work, and if you struggle to find any justification for going to the office each day, other than paying the bills — that is a clear sign that something has gone terribly wrong.
If you’re completely uninspired by your work, see no meaning in it, and even resent it, it’s inevitable that you will find yourself in a rut. The more meaningful issue here is to recognize that these feelings are a sign from within that you’re “off track”. Essentially everyone who is successful in their chosen career, is highly driven and believes in what they’re doing. They work themselves to the bone, but they are nonetheless enthusiastic about the work.
When you find yourself in a rut, consult your gut. Ask yourself; have you lost belief and enthusiasm in your work? If so, what will it take to get it back? And what steps can you take to move yourself in the right direction starting today?
It may be that you need to have the courage to start planning and saving up for a major career change. Or it may be that you just need to make some specific tweaks to your current routine. In any event, consider it an essential duty to yourself, to regain that sense of purpose.
Deepen your education; refine and fill in the gaps in your understanding
It may be that you managed to get your business off the ground and enjoy a modest degree of success, purely through your own enthusiasm and natural insight, but that you nonetheless lack some of the nuanced skill and understanding to take your business to the next level.
In this case, deepening your education can be one of the most meaningful and productive things you can do. Of course, you could, if you’re well-established and have the means, explore an MBA in finance online, for example. But “education” in this context could just as easily mean conducting deeper research into your target market, taking short certificate courses, or reading more relevant literature.
As the old saying goes; “knowledge is power”. By advancing your education — that is, by deepening your knowledge of your field and of relevant disciplines and techniques — you can often move things forward in your career in a serious way.
Take action on delayed projects or side-hustles — the only way to move forward is to move forward
People, generally speaking, are very good at procrastinating ad infinitum, in areas of their lives which would benefit immensely from decisive action.
This is rarely as evident anywhere else as it is in the domain of business, where “analysis paralysis” and the fear of putting a foot wrong, can keep you from ever taking action on a given project or side-hustle.
The thing is, you only ever move forward by moving forward. That is, in business, you often make the most progress by having a “bias for action” — as noted by author Jack Canfield. When you take action on that side hustle or project, you gain immediate feedback and experience. Sure, maybe things don’t all fall into place at once. But you move the game forward, and win enough insight to re-calibrate your aim and try again.
By sitting around indefinitely and planning, you often never get the necessary experience and direct insight to get out of your rut.
Re-calibrate your focus — what is it you want, and when do you want it? Be specific, not vague
As has often been said, “if you don’t know where you’re trying to get to, you’ll never get anywhere.” Professional goals are often waylaid by external circumstances and need to be adapted over time. But they are, nonetheless, essential to have.
If you’re in a rut in your professional life, there’s a good chance that it’s because you don’t have a clear goal and focus in mind. Where do you want to be in 3 years? In 1 year? In 6 months?
If you are in a rut, take a deep breath. Re-calibrate your focus. Identify what it is you want to achieve, specifically, in a given time frame. Then, re-focus your day-to-day strategies and priorities to pursue that goal.
This article is contributed by Jason Dirkham.
