17 Ways to Deal with a Rut
Ruts happen. To everyone.
Especially for pet bloggers, our creativity gets taxed daily–between writing posts, creating social content, appearing in videos, taking photos, and so on–so it’s easy to fall into an exhausted rut.
If you’re feeling stuck, first, see if you can figure out what triggered the rut. Psychology Today reports“chronic stress, chronic anxiety, or chronic exhaustion” as rut-causing problems. Other examples include:
- Pressuring yourself to produce more content than you truly have time for,
- Feeling bored from lack of variety,
- Stressing over your analytics,
- And so on.
Sometimes, finding the root of the problem fixes everything!
Other times, you need to dig in to get out of that creative rut. If your spark fizzled, don’t beat yourself up. That only makes it worse. Remind yourself that every creative gets stuck. The key is not allowing yourself to stay stuck.
So, give yourself a break, and try these 17 tips to get your perspective–and, hopefully, your spark–back.
17 Ways to Deal with a Rut:
- Set a small goal. (“I’ll write for 5 minutes today,” or “I’ll brainstorm enough ideas to fill one Post-it Note.”)
- Pet your pet!
- Take a walk.
- Eat a healthy snack. Protein is brain food!
- Do something fun.
- Meditate, even for just 90 seconds.
- Call a loved one.
- Listen to an inspiring podcast.
- Take a nap.
- Practice self care.
- Watch a feel-good movie.
- Journal.
- Freshen up your space–a new candle, fresh flowers, anything that inspires you!
- Enroll in a free online class or, better yet, an IRL class.
- Volunteer at your local shelter.
- Flip through a magazine you’ve never read before at your public library.
- Take a break! Seriously, give yourself the day, weekend, or even the entire week off. Do things that inspire you. Rest. Recharge. You’ll come back reinvigorated with fresh ideas and a fresh perspective!
Your Turn!
Have you ever found yourself in a rut? How did you get out of it? We’d love to hear your rut-busting ideas in the comments below!
Image: ArthurStock/Shutterstock.com
