Welcome to another day of burnout recovery week! It sounds like we're going to AA or something. But really I'm talking about recovery from burnout in your professional life. I truly believe that you can have a job that you love to go to. It can be sustainable for your life and you can stop taking vacations just to get away from the office.

Today, we're going to talk about feeling stuck. For me, there is no worse feeling then when I feel like that I am stuck. I HATE NOT being able to move from a situation or figure out how to make it better. I get frustrated and grouchy when I feel like I'm pinned in the corner. I'm like a caged animal that just wants to come after your jugular and fight my way out of it.

But guess what I've learned. It's not about fighting your way out of a situation. It's about shifting your mindset to realize you aren't really stuck. Instead of thinking you're locked in a box, maybe you just need to turn the handle and step out!

Here are my suggestions on how to remind yourself that you are really never stuck:

“You are not a flower, move your ass.”

Have you seen the social media square that says "Bloom where you are planted"?

Well I'm going to be honest with you, I hate that graphic.

To me, it's like saying, "Well...your situation sucks but just stay there and do your best."

Yes, we have to make our situation the best that we can. However, when we give up trying to change our situation...that's accepting defeat.

That's accepting that you are stuck in a situation and limiting the possibilities that it can change.

So, I say pull up the damn roots and move out of that garden!

Maybe it's in your practice? Maybe it's time to change locations where you live? Maybe it's time to prune out some relationships in your life that are not healthy?

No matter what it is, stop “just dealing with it” and commit to making a change!

“Your job does not define you”

As a mother of three young children, we have a lot of Moana in our lives. But that’s ok because I think it is a WONDERFUL movie. I catch myself singing “this does not define you...This is not who you are...You know who you are.”

If you don’t know, Moana is a girl who will lead her people after her father.

"I can lead with pride

I can make us strong

I'll be satisfied if I play along

But the voice inside sings a different song

What is wrong with me"

She's loves her island but had a deep yearning for the sea, “it calls me.”

Like Moana, we all have things we are committed to and that we do love (our island, our people) but we have the one little part deep down inside of us that we can't get off our minds, it calls to us.

We see others doing or experiencing that thing we secretly desire. Don’t get caught in the mindset that you are stuck where you are. Because that yearning, it means something. It is hard to step out on it. Just like it was scary for Moana to jump in a boat and sail the ocean having never been off her island. But the payoff…..it’s priceless.

 

Listen to Moana’s Gramma Tala:

You are your father's daughter

Stubbornness and pride

Mind what he says but remember

You may hear a voice inside

And if the voice starts to whisper

To follow the farthest star

Moana, that voice inside is

Who you are