Feeling Stuck? Wondering What You Should Do Next?
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I sometimes notice that I’m feeling stuck.
When I’m frustrated, trying to figure something out. Stuck for inspiration when I’m attempting to create something or solve a problem. Stuck in thought patterns and loops.
It’s tempting to give up or seek shortcuts when this feeling kicks in, as if it’s something to avoid or overcome. But stuckness can encompass a wide range of experiences and open the door to all sorts of interesting discoveries about ourselves and the things we care about.
Feeling Stuck Because You Don’t Know What You Want
Sometimes we feel stuck when we don’t know what to do. Not just in the existential sense of “What should I do with my life?”, but in smaller, everyday ways too.
We might struggle to choose between two options. We might know what we don’t want, but not be able to identify what we do want. Or the idea of settling on one thing brings a flood of everything we need to sacrifice to do so.
Feeling Stuck Because There Are Too Many Possibilities
Sometimes stuckness comes from having too many possibilities. Too many interests, projects, and lives we want to live. We need to reconcile and navigate life with our finite time, energy, and capacity without becoming overwhelmed by the abundance of options.
Feeling Stuck Because None of the Options Feel Right
We might feel stuck when none of the available or obvious options feel right. The choices on offer don’t reflect who we are, or we’re trying to force ourselves into a life designed by someone else for someone else.
Perhaps things flowed freely for a while, but they no longer seem to fit.
Feeling Stuck Even Though You Know What You Want
Sometimes, stuckness comes because we know exactly what we want. But we’re afraid of what choosing it might mean. We might fear what others will think and worry about regretting the sacrifices it asks of us.
Feeling Stuck as a Doorway
Feeling stuck can be a doorway to self-awareness, curiosity, and discovery. It’s a territory that lends itself perfectly to map-making. Rather than creating a list of things to do, fixes, solutions, missing pieces, and the correct answers, we can treat feeling stuck as a territory to explore.
Before deciding what to do, we might ask ourselves where we are and how we got here.
The Map of Stuckness and Possibility
I didn’t anticipate the map I created over the weekend becoming anything specific. But as I explored these questions, I could feel it coming to life as a mini-zine journal companion workbook centred on a simple question…
What do I care about?
As simple as that question may seem, it can be difficult for many people to answer, especially those whose decisions, choices, and priorities have been shaped by concern for how their actions will affect others.
Maybe something has changed in your life, and you suddenly have more time and space to think about what you want to do.
Or perhaps you’ve reached a point where you feel yourself fading away, and you recognise that it’s time to come home to yourself.
To figure out what you care about, what’s important, and the shape you want your life to take.
A Mini-Zine Journal Workbook
The workbook isn’t designed to tell you what to do. That’s never been my approach.
Instead, it’s designed to help you slow down long enough to hear yourself, notice where you are and what you care about, and perhaps make surprising discoveries along the way.
Learn more and download it here.
