A Round of Applause For The Rut

May I have a little commotion for the rut please?

Yes, you read that right the first time. I’m asking you to celebrate the dreaded rut.

If you’ve stumbled across any of my social media pages recently, you already know the last few years have been hard for me creatively. I’ve been so deep into a rut that at this point I’ve decorated the space so it feels more homey. If you look closely, you might see a Nespresso machine tucked into a corner, a Kindle strew across the floor or a Snoopy themed blanket tossed on a couch.

I’ve been promising myself each year that I’ll be kinder to myself, expect a little bit less and just allow life to happen.This year I’m on a mission to find whimsy and reignite my spark.

I was speaking to one of my friends recently and I mentioned I feel like I’ve just been treading water. I’m not making any genuine progress towards my author goals and my arms and legs are tired as hell despite my lack forward momentum. However, after the conversation I thought to myself: treading water means you are not sinking. I know this isn’t ground breaking or anything but it was the epiphany I think I needed. Treading water means you are not sinking. I thought back to all the points in life (creatively or otherwise) where I felt like I was just going through the motions only to not quite land any closer to my goals. I thought of all the times while existing inside of a rut, a quiet and seductive voice has encouraged me to just quit. That voice always made it seem like giving up was the most reasonable thing in the world. But with my new mantra ringing in my mind, I started to wonder if perhaps I should be looking at this in-between place in a different way.

I’ve started to wonder if perhaps we might all benefit from looking at the periods where we find ourself in a rut in a different way. We all know that life is sometimes all a matter of perspective. So what if we didn’t look at the rut as a place that frustrated us until we eventually broke and gave up on chasing our dreams? What if we considered the rut to be a place that offered us a space to keep above water until it was truly time to swim. Staying in place isn’t always a bad thing because treading water means you are not sinking . What if this rut is just hold us in place until it is time to move forward?

I think the most poignant thing was acknowledging that those tired arms and legs that I spoke to my friends about have been building strength even though I wasn’t focused on it. While in the rut and going through the motions we are bound to pick up on little things here and there… to tweak things sometimes in ways we haven’t consciously thought about. There is no such thing as true stagnation. We always learn, whether it is obvious or not. So when it is truly time to move out of the rut and go forward, we will always be moving forward a little different, a little sturdier, wiser and maybe even more shrewd.

Perhaps we are not stuck at all. Perhaps we are being held until it is time to fly.

So, once again, a round of applause for the rut please!