From the course: Breaking Out of a Rut

Identifying rut types

From the course: Breaking Out of a Rut

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Identifying rut types

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- A rut is simply muscle memory that manifests in our daily actions, our immediate future, and our life pursuits. The first step to getting out of a rut is to identify what kind of rut you're in, or more importantly, what kind of rut you want to bust. Well there are nuances on the periphery of each. Let's focus on the short-term, midterm, and long-term ruts. Short-term ruts are ones of daily repetition. They usually manifest as a series of unconscious choices that lead to similar executional results. If you're a designer, you might find you're constantly using the same fonts or designing in the same grid structures. If you're an artist, you may find you're attracted to the same color palettes repeatedly, or you rarely stray from the same type of application instrument. They can also show up as patterns of behavior or routines of process. Truthfully, most ruts are short-term ruts. They key to busting short-term ruts is engaging in short-term experiences. Midterm ruts, however, require more investigation. Have you ever returned from a conference or vacation and felt especially motivated to enact positive change in your life? Perhaps you wanted to improve in a certain area or pick up a new skill. So you took the immediate actionable steps to reach that lofty goal, knowing you wouldn't reach it right away. We often think about long-term objectives, and we create short-term actions to get there. But few of us ever think about the middle. The middle consists of a combination of larger steps you can take as well as shorter goals you can achieve to help meet your long-term goals. These midterm directives require a bit of planning, but usually don't require extensive life changes to achieve. If short-term rut busting involves steps to reach a goal, midterm rut busting involves strides that are both steps and goals. Then there's long-term rut-busting. We actually engage in the practice of long-term rut busting every year on January first. You know it as a tradition of New Year's resolutions. Resolutions are long-terms goals you've set for yourself, changes you'd like to see in your life. They're easy to set and difficult to keep because you rarely set a plan in place to achieve these goals. You simply fill out the wish list and hope for the best. To make resolutions stick, you have to be willing to make some significant change, not just willing to accept the benefit that change will produce. They are goals that require an actionable plan, accountability, and faith that the journey is worth it. What kind of rut do you want to bust?

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