Have you Ever Felt Stuck in Life? Me Too…How Oprah Got Me UnStuck

By Jackie White

I am a possibilities kind of person. I wake up most days so excited about life because there is so much to do, and I mean that in a good way! I have goals and things I want to accomplish. Big things and little. Some of the things are significant and others are not so much, but to me, the invitation to live life full out is one I cannot pass up. So, if everything is so happy-happy joy-joy how did I find myself stuck?

I was perplexed by it when this stuckness hit me. How? Why? In fact, I have stuff I have to get done, I can’t be stalled out wallowing in stuckness! I tried to shake it off. I tried to ignore it oh, and hey, news flash, that doesn’t work! I was getting frustrated and wondered if there was something wrong with me.

Being stuck sucks. You can feel paralyzed to make a move in your life. Sometimes feeling stuck feels really heavy and in my case, I didn’t even feel like myself. I found myself chatting with a friend about this expressing my desperation to just get going on just one of the ideas I had. My friend was quiet for a moment and then said to me, it seems to me that someone like Oprah has more irons in the fire than you. She has her own network, books, magazines, television shows etc and she gets it all done. If she can do it, you can too. I thought, is this a challenge or some sort of psychological play my friend has dealt me? In that case, I am competitive, I’ll take the challenge! I am not going to let Oprah win! My friend, interjected and calmed me and my competitive side down enough to explain that she wasn’t proposing a competition against Oprah. She was merely pointing out that it is possible for a person to take on a lot and succeed.

Once I cooled my competitive jets, I began to see the light. Oprah is one of my heroes and to see the adversity she has overcome and the success she has achieved, that in itself should be enough to inspire me to do more. However, as I got to thinking just how many things she has achieved in her life, it became clear that I could also put all my dreams into motion, one dream at a time!

I was creating my stuckness by trying to figure out a way to do everything right now and that became overwhelming. Now, we all know doing everything righ now is a ridiculous thought, but limiting beliefs show up to throw you off the path of what you want in life very easily, even when the belief is kind of crazy!

Just Start:
So, after looking at my “problem” I saw that my only problem was myself and my limiting beliefs that I didn’t have enough time to get it all done. I finally realized that without actually making a move I wasn’t going to get anything done.  Lesson learned here was that you just have to start. Jon Acuff from his book Start says “Regardless of your age or station in life, it all comes down to one simple truth: you just have to start.”

Here is another thing many of us forget when we get in the repetitive cycle of being stuck, we just have to make a move! Get started! Start by making a move rather than the thinking about it. Tony Robbins categorizes execution as more powerful than even knowledge.

Knowledge isn't power; it's potential power. Execution trumps knowledge any day of the week. - Tony Robbins

Bite Size or Massive Action Gets It Done: So when you find yourself stuck find one thing you can just do to get you started. After you complete that one task, then do another. Don’t try to do everything at once. These bite-sized pieces of progress will add up and soon you will be so far away from the Land of Stuck, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to get started! And, hey, if you are ready, no one is saying you can’t make a big move! Massive action will get massive progress moving, so know you have an option, if you are ready to jump in with both feet!

Be Aware:
The thing with being stuck is that it can rear its ugly head time and time again, so it’s important to check in with yourself to make sure you aren’t succumbing to those old patterns of limited thinking. When you see those thoughts sneaking back in, then you need to make a move to release yourself from the resistance!

Stuckness can be paralyzing, but when you realize all it takes is for you to just do something, then you will begin to oil the machine and soon you will be getting it done and checking those tasks and goals off your to do list!

Shine On!