Getting Help When You’re Feeling Stuck
A basic primer on how to handle obstacles in life. You may make some significant changes in who you are and where you’re going with the help from people like these. Yes, it’s okay to ask for help.
For the sake of brevity, let’s assume you drive your car to work every day. And every day you take the same route. It’s so routine that you could drive it with your eyes shut. Now imagine that one day one of the streets you normally drive down is closed off. What do you do? It’s a simple question with a simple answer for most. You’d probably go down a different street to get to where you need to be. Essentially, you’d see the road block, think of a different way to get to work, and then take that alternative route, driving around the obstacle.
A similar thing happens when you reach a personal obstacle. You’re driving along on the highway of life, doing the same thing day in and day out, just minding your own business, then there it is. An obstacle. What is the obstacle? Obviously it’s different for each of us. It may be the realization of a dead end job, an unsatisfying relationship, trying to start up your own business, or a just a plain old feeling of not being happy enough. So what are you to do?
Similar to the roadblock analogy, you would stop, think, make a new plan, and then implement the new plan. Simple, right? Maybe not. For many people it’s hard to even stop what they’re doing in order to see that there is an obstacle in their life. Instead, feelings of anxiety, frustration, and resentment, among others, emerge and filter their perception of what is in front of them. It’s like driving up to the roadblock, sitting there at a standstill, getting worked up and angry, and never getting to your intended destination. Why do people do this?
“Why” is a question with an answer that goes beyond the scope and intention of this article. But perhaps it more important to realize that people do this (including myself and perhaps you, too) and that there are solutions to “getting around” the obstacles in our lives. It may just take an objective bystander to simply point out to you that you are not moving towards that place where you want to be. That may be enough of a wake-up call to get you moving. However, as a reflection of our consumer driven society, it is sometimes more convenient to get hired help in the form of a counselor or life coach.
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