Are you feeling stuck in life? Do you feel like you need to start over, but you are not sure where to start?

You may feel helpless, confused, lost, and without direction.

If you can relate to this, let me tell you you don’t have to feel this way forever. In fact, these feelings are there because you are looking for a change, for a new life. 

You probably guessed as much, but don’t know how to start taking the first step toward change. Or maybe you feel completely lost as to why you feel stuck in life.

But there are several strategies that can help you gain clarity, stay focused, and find ways to pursue your goals. So in today’s article, I am sharing with you the 7 most common reasons why you feel stuck and 10 ultimate steps you can take to change that.

Let´s being!

Identify what you’re stuck on

The first step to overcoming feeling stuck in life is figuring out what is causing this feeling. 

Maybe you feel overwhelmed by stress like there’s too much on your plate and you can’t focus. 

Or maybe you have an important decision to make, but you don’t know where to start. Identifying what is making you feel this way will help you find solutions for getting yourself out of this rut.

Now identifying exactly the reason why you feel this way is not always easy. So here are the 7 most common reasons people feel stuck in life:

You feel overloaded, overwhelmed, and/or burnout

The first reason I want to talk about is feeling overloaded, overwhelmed, and/or burn out. This often happens when your thoughts are scattered in too many directions, you have too many responsibilities or your find it difficult to balance your work-life areas.

Unconscious self-sabotage

The second reason people feel stuck in life is because they unconsciously sabotage themselves.

Sabotaging yourself can look like not putting effort into your goals because you believe you are not good enough. Or scrolling through social media and procrastinating whenever you have an important task to do.

We normally self-sabotage because we believe we are only worthy of so much. 

And when insecurities and limiting beliefs come in they end up activating this behavior which makes sure that we fail in our “efforts” to succeed.

Limited vision

Do you have a why? A reason to get out in the morning? Do you have future perspectives or goals that you are working towards?

Many times we fall into the flow of life and get lost in the day-to-day routine. And although this is a great way to manage stress, it can lead to feeling stuck and even a lack of motivation.

So even if you decide to focus on the next step right in front of you, remember to have your purpose clear and look at the bigger picture to not lose sight of what you are working towards.

Perfectionism 

How many times have you turned down something because it wasn’t perfect enough? Or because you thought you weren’t good enough? Or because it “wasn’t the right time”?

Being a perfectionist is a very real issue that most of us struggle with and that can lead to feelings of lack of motivation, and self-loathing.

But perfectionism is a defense mechanism to protect us from getting out of our comfort zone, and from the possibility of failure.

So whenever you feel like your perfectionist tendencies are kicking in, ask yourself :

“Am I truly trying to give my best, or is this behavior protecting me from something I fear?”

Emotional conflict between your desires and others

Sometimes we feel stuck in life because we are torn between doing what others want us to do and what we truly want.

But the truth is that your life is completely yours. You are in charge of every decision and action you take. And although you might feel the need to please others around you, don’t make yourself small to fit into everyone else´s idea of you. 

Be bold in your decisions, don’t settle for anything less than you deserve, and remember that you cannot help others if your cup is empty.

Resistance to change

Another common reason people feel stuck in life is that they are resisting a change in their lives.

However change is a natural part of life, it´s inevitable, and it’s not always a bad thing. Yes, it can be uncomfortable and scary to get out of your comfort zone.

But there is opportunity and challenges that will help you to grow and achieve bigger things, the type of things you keep dreaming about.

Feeling stuck because of a lack of meaning or purpose

One of the most common reasons for feeling stuck in life is having a lack of a deep sense of meaning or purpose.

We often have a lack of purpose because our life is filled with meaningless actions that don’t fulfill us anymore. And even though discovering your purpose is not something that you can do in a day, you have the power to fill your days with things that make you feel passionate and happy.

Here you can find an in-depth article on how to find your passions in life!

Take Small Steps Toward Achieving Your Goals. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you’re feeling stuck and don’t see any progress in life.

To deal with this, focus on setting small and manageable goals. Goals that are fairly easy for you to achieve.

Even though it may say like you are taking a step backward, what you are doing by focusing on small goals is building up your confidence and your belief in yourself.

In the same way, break down big goals into small steps so you can focus just on the next step in front of you.

This will help you make steady progress and avoid the frustration of trying to do everything at once. Remember to celebrate each victory, no matter how small, to give yourself the motivation to keep going.

Find healthy distractions or outlets to overcome feeling stuck in life

Distractions are a very useful method for anyone feeling stuck and overwhelmed. 

A healthy distraction should help you focus on the things that make you happy and help you find clarity.

These outlets could be anything like exercising, hiking, reading, creating art, listening to music, or writing in a journal. Look for activities that bring you joy and give you a sense of calm or accomplishment.

Change your mindset about failure and challenges. 

It’s essential to understand that failure and challenges are part of life. And to learn how to use these tough moments as opportunities to learn, and build resilience. 

Changing your mindset will not only help you feel less stuck, but it can also put your goals back into perspective.

The thing is that a failure will never be a failure once you learn from your mistakes, instead, it will become a teaching and it will represent a very important lesson you needed to learn in order to succeed, because that´s how humans learn, through trial and error.

So don´t let failures make you quit, instead change your mindset around them and see them for what they really are, a teaching method and a lesson we needed to learn. 

Don´t allow society’s misperception of failure to prevent you from achieving your dreams.

How to overcome feeling stuck in life. Become self-aware

Self-awareness is a very helpful skill to develop that can help you, first to identify what is the root cause of your feelings and second think of ways to change your situation and help you get out of this rut.

Self-awareness is the ability of an individual to be able to clearly see who they truly are and the effects of who they are on others.

And this ability is based on two things: first the awareness you have for yourself and the awareness of how others see you.

There are many exercises out there that can help you develop your self-awareness, like journaling, for example, practicing mindfulness, and even learning about your personality type. 

Take responsibility

It´s easy to fall into the game of playing the victim. But blaming others for the situation you are in will lead you to feel like you have given up all control of your life and choices.

Remember that you are in complete control of your life and that if you don’t like something you can always change it. And even though it may seem scary to accept that you are responsible for your actions, it will also make you realize that you have the power to change your life for the better.

You just need to believe in yourself and that you are worthy of the life you dream of.

Ditch your unrealistic expectations

Being a perfectionist and/or having an impostor syndrome is like being in a constant battle with yourself.

A battle where you question your potential, and yourself, and obsess over every little detail.

But contrary to what your mind is telling you, you don’t have to be perfect all the time.

You are human and you need to allow yourself to make mistakes and not do anything with perfect precision.

Let me tell you something about success. To be successful in life, no matter what that means for you, you will have to get out of your comfort zone. You´ll have to do things you have never done before.

And you might not be good at those new things in the beginning, but that is completely okay. You can be bad at something new, you can make mistakes.

Focus on the progress you are making, on learning from your mistakes, and on improving yourself along the way.

Choose self-love

When you feel stuck or unfulfilled in life it is easy to fall into the habit of self-criticism.

But you need to understand that there is nothing wrong with feeling stuck or lost. You are not a complete failure by feeling this way. In fact, we all feel stuck or lost at some point in our life.

So remember to be kind to yourself and see this as a wake-up call to turn your life around.

If you struggle with loving yourself here are 6 steps you can start taking to improve your relationship with yourself.

Create a vision for your life to stop feeling stuck

You might be feeling stuck in life because you have outgrown your current situation, don’t feel fulfilled anymore, or might feel lost.

But what all these reasons have in common is that there is something inside of you asking for a change, asking you to take action.

Something that will enormously help you establish a new direction is creating a vision for your life. 

What I mean by this is to sit down with yourself and reassess what parts of your life you want to change. What do you want your life to be like, who do you want to be in this world…?

I know these questions sound scary and very existential, but you don’t need to have the answer to all of them now. Think of how you are feeling right now as a big knot you are trying to untangle.

The truth is that you just need to start pulling from one end to start undoing that mess. And to help you do that and redirect your life here are a couple of questions you can answer:

• What do I feel like my life is missing and how can I get more of what I need?
• When am I the happiest version of myself?
• What makes me upset? 
• Am I doing all that I can to reach my goals?
• How would I describe a perfect day?
• What is most important to me?
• What are my core values?
• What makes me feel passionate?
• What’s on my mind right now?
• What do I forgive myself for?
• What do I want to take with me into the future?

Ask for help

And lastly, don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for help, there are somethings we simply cannot do or solve in our own.

You could ask your friends or loved ones to have chat about how you are feeling and how they may be able to help you. Or maybe even by enlisting a Coach or therapist to help guide you through what you’re feeling.

Final thoughts on how to overcome feeling stuck in life

Losing our sense of purpose and direction in life is something we all experience at some point in our lives. This can be caused because you:

• Feel overwhelmed, burned out, or overloaded
• You self-sabotage yourself
• You have a limited vision for your life
• Are a perfectionist
• Have an emotional conflict between what you want to do and what want from you
• Are resisting a change in your life
• Have a lack of purpose or meaning

To stop feeling stuck in life there are several strategies and tips you can try. In this article we saw the following methods:

• Identify why you feel lost
• Become more self aware
• Create a vision for your life
• Choose self love and be kind to yourself
• Ditch your unrealistic expectations
• Take responsibility for your actions
• Change your mindset about failures and mistakes
• Find healthy distractions that give your a sense of clarity and fulfillment
• Take small steps toward achieving your goals

And lastly remember to not be afraid to ashamed to ask for help whenever you need.

Thank you so much for investing your time on this article about how to overcome feeling stuck in life. I hope the tips, tools and resources will help you take the first step towards a better and happier life.

Remenber that you are worthy of even your deepest and wildest desires!