Dig Yourself Out of a Rut by Creating Something

If you're feeling discouraged or down on yourself, getting started on something new can help a lot. If you're not sure what to do, just start creating something, anything.

It's easy to put yourself down, especially when you hold yourself to high expectations, but you're also the only one that can pull yourself back up. Instead of dwelling on discouraging thoughts, Leo Babauta at Zen Habits recommends you shift your mind's gears by creating something. It can be anything: writing, drawing, sewing, coding, building, whatever. The point is that you start creating something you want to create:

Don't worry about whether you'll do it for 10 minutes or an hour. Don't worry about how good you'll be at it, or what people will think of it, or whether you'll succeed or not. Those are not relevant to the task. Just do. Put your mind completely in the activity, in the motion and ideas and emotions, in your body and breath and surroundings. Be completely mindful, completely immersed.

In no time you'll be sucked in to whatever you're working on and you'll get two great perks: first, you'll forget about why you were being so down on yourself, and second, you'll feel good about what you're doing. It doesn't hurt to create something with a skill you're good at too. It reminds you that you're completely capable of doing things well and that you only have to be down in that rut for as long as you choose.

Getting Lost in Just Doing | Zen Habits

Photo by Laura D'Alessandro.

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