I was driving down a side street in my neighborhood last winter and noticed a lady that had her car stuck in the snow. Her wheels were spinning, but she wasn’t going anywhere. I pulled over and offered to help. She explained that this was her third time getting stuck on this street that week. I got behind her car, pushed it as hard as I could and was finally able to get her out of the rut she had herself in. Since she’d been stuck 3 times before, I suggested taking another road to her destination might be a better bet. Her car wasn’t very big and not that great in snowy conditions. Her tires were also not made for that much snow. My van, on the other hand, handled the snow just fine.
I hopped in my van and headed to the grocery store. When I came back down the street there she was, stuck again and someone else was trying to help her get out. She didn’t take my suggestion of getting to the plowed road and kept heading down the road that was just about impossible for her car to get down.
“The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs.” – John Dewey
This got me thinking. There are so many people that live their lives like this and companies that do business like this. They don’t learn from their past mistakes and keep going back down the same road on their journey that gets them stuck on the way to a goal. People try to give them suggestions to help, but they seem to focus on going in the wrong direction. It’s like they want to get stuck in a rut instead of listening to suggestions from other people.
Companies have to think of new innovative ways to get out of their employees out of their daily ruts and thinking outside the box a bit. Getting out of a rut can be difficult at times. They don’t realize that with the same old thinking they get the same old results. Since it’s so much easier to
keep doing what we’ve done over and over and over, we keep doing the same things. It takes a bit of effort to change our ways to get out of the rut we got ourself into. Take time to step back and look at what you are doing and the results you are getting or not getting. How is it working for you? Are you going in reverse, stuck in neutral or moving forward?
Think of things that you can do in your company to change things up a bit for your employees. Even if your company is doing incredibly well, it doesn’t hurt to hit the refresh button to get things going even better. Team building exercises, corporate retreats, creative thinking workshops, sales conferences, unique corporate entertainment, entertaining motivational keynote speakers and other things could be that extra push your company needs to get out of the rut or move even faster down the road.
There have been countless times during my motivational speaking / entertainment career that I’ve received calls from someone in a company wanting to try “something different this year“. They’ve had the same type of event year after year or in some cases haven’t done anything for their employees. They wanted something unique that would leave their employees motivated, entertained and happy. That’s why they called me. It’s what I do best. By weaving the things my clients want me to focus on with my motivation and entertainment, it gets their employees out of that mental rut and resets their mental power button a bit.
People stuck in a rut in their business can seem very robotic. They go through the same steps over and over and over, just like they were programed to do. They go from step A to step Z without thinking. They work
on autopilot, get in their lazy rut and don’t give it their all. After a while they get burned out and either quit their job or bring those around them down with them. Don’t be afraid to try something new to reboot your company again.
Just like the car stuck in the snow in my neighborhood, getting out of your rut might take some help from others around you. Don’t be afraid to ask people for suggestions or help and be willing to listen to them. It will take some effort to get out of the rut. Once you get out of the rut you are in, keep moving forward. There are situations where you’ll need to take a different road to get to your goal after you are out of your rut. There are also situations where you just have to hit the gas to get over that bump in the road that is keeping you from your goals. Only you know which choice is best for you.
People like Steve Jobs, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and other great inventors throughout history had many obstacles and ruts along their journey to creating things we use daily. You can’t let the ruts you get stuck in keep you from moving forward. Have your goal in mind, stop procrastinating and keep moving. Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”. Don’t think of being in a rut as failure, think of it as a learning experience of finding a way that didn’t work as you figure out a way that will. You can also think of it as your brain hitting a pause button. It’s your brain’s way of letting you know you need to take a step back and have a closer look at your plan. You might need to start over or just adjust your sails a tiny bit to get back on course. I wish you well on your journey.
If you are ready to have a hilarious, inspirational and amazing presentation at your next event to get your employees out of the rut they are possibly in, give me a call! I look forward to working with you.