Getting stuck in life is an illusion.

You may indeed be living amid real-life problems like

• unreasonably long working-hours,
• financial stresses,
• social isolation,
• toxic relationships,
• insecurities,
• loss of sense of meaning for life,

but you will never be “stuck” in these situations.

There is always a way out, but you just stayed there either because

1. you are unaware that you can (and should) escape, (lack of awareness)
2. you don’t know what to do to escape, (lack of knowledge)
3. you know what to do but don’t know how to do so. (lack of skills)

In this article, action steps to all 3 levels of problems will be covered so you can immediately start moving out of the rut.

The unaware

This level is both the easiest and hardest level to tackle.

Easy because you only have to realise that you can escape from it, difficult because you have to believe that you can escape from it, which is out of your perception radar, hence hard-to-accept.

It just feels stupid to admit that you’ve been trapped in a prison without a lock for years, and the only reason that you were trapped is you’ve never attempt to escape.

However, most people are in this state of mind.

They are unaware that their current ways of living, or a life path that their parents, peers, society have assigned for them, is NOT the only option.

And so when people try to awaken them, they will reject the possibility of change out of shame, locking themselves up for even longer, if not forever.

Solution: use this mindset to combat that shame: your mistakes don’t define you, your response to them does.

Realise that your current self have no control over your past.

Any second you spend on thinking “what could have been done” in the past is at the price of “what you can be doing” now.

The only way to minimise your loss is to stop loss.

Mark today as your new birthday, and restart everything like the past doesn’t exist.

knowledge lacking

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

-Albert Einstein

If you can, the problems won’t be created in the first place at all.

Solution: expand your mind with more quality information- but not any type of information. Laser target principles (more on this later).

There are 3 lessons that I hope you internalise as you do your search, because they will save you years of pains and sweat that can get you no results at all:

Lesson 1: something doesn’t work doesn’t mean that nothing will ever work.

Never lose hope from failures.

You may have given loads of advice in your lifetime, tried to implement them, yet failed over and over again.

You may misinterpret it as “nothing is gonna work”, when the reality is just “THEIR advice doesn’t work”.

Start to realise that most people- both online and offline- are uneducated.

It’s not about their schooling background, but their understanding of life and the principles of the world.

They aren’t able to help you with something they can’t even help themselves with.

Look at their lives. Open your eyes.

Do you want to be like these people?

If no, quit taking advice from them.

Lesson 2: Validate an idea by results from implementation, and nothing else.

Stop using external parameters to evaluate the usefulness of a person’s words.

Not their schooling background. (As explained above.)

Not their popularity. Why?
Because a lot of people people follow these nice-looking influencers with admirable personal backgrounds to entertain, not to transform themselves.
These people did not necessarily “validate” the usefulness of the influencer’s advice for you.

Not their personal achievements. Why?
Because people gotten results for themselves aren’t necessarily able to help you do the same.
You get it if you have ever encountered teachers that score so well in public examinations yet their teachings are like crap.

Notice that at the end of the day you still need to implement the information you’ve learned to see any changes (positive or negative) in your life.

You don’t just sit there is think which one works and just mindlessly consume without doing anything.

It doesn’t work like that.

Start implementing as you consume, and check whether their advice work.

If not, you look for the next one.

Lesson 3: learn the principles, and develop your own tactics.

As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

-Harrington Emerson

There is no one-size-fits-all all.

If you are looking for a solution written for you without needing any iteration, you are setting yourself up for failure.

You are a unique human being. It is difficult, if not impossible for anyone to be exactly like you.

Everyone is a little bit (if not vastly) different when it comes to their workflow.

But the successful ones surely have developed their tactics according to the principles- which govern the reality.

Principles are like science.

You cannot have your desired outcome while going against the rules.

If you want things to work, learn how do they work, then work accordingly.

Skill lacking

Solution: acquire it.

It is straightforward.

However, I would suggest you learn it from someone who’ve already helped you make positive changes in your life.

It just makes sense. If that person’s content has already gotten you results, it just makes sense to continue learning from him/her rather than some random people that you’ve never gotten any chance to validate their ideas by implementation.

The life you’ve been longing for is right in front of you

Now that you are aware.

You know how to figure out what to do.

You know who should you learn the skills from.

The only step left is to take action.

If you don’t do anything, learning everything will be as good as learning nothing.

The bridge between your dream and your reality, with the roadmap provided, is just your action.

It will not be “easy”, but certainly would be easier than settling for a life that you don’t really enjoy living.

You either make your dream happen, or let your nightmare continue (by doing nothing).

You future is within your hands.

Which one would you chooose?