Feeling Stuck or Stale? Re-Pot Yourself

Oftentimes people will seek me out because they feel stuck. They feel like a hamster on the wheel, running like hell every day but truly going nowhere in the grander scheme of their life. Sometimes it is not so much because they dislike what they’re doing (for work) or who they are with (at home) but simply because they feel stale like week-old bread or they have outgrown their current circumstance. Either way the daily grind drags them down and they are left surviving instead of thriving.

Our friends in the plant world have a perfect lesson to teach us in these instances. Have you ever had a plant that grew and thrived and then all of a sudden looked a little lifeless? Maybe their roots started creeping out the bottom of the pot? What did you do to help out that little green friend? You re-potted it. Chances are if you re-potted it gently and gave it some extra TLC once it got in its new environment, it started to thrive again. The same holds true for us.

We often hear about creative artists re-inventing themselves. Musicians try a little different genre, artists try a new medium, and authors write for a new audience (just think of how many authors have just one children’s book and you’ll get my drift). Sometimes they are wildly successful and sometimes they bomb, but I guarantee you it stretched their comfort zone and taught them more about who they are and how they want their craft to impact others.

We don’t often hear about everyday people re-inventing themselves. Yet, just like the plant in a pot that no longer works for it, we need to re-pot ourselves every once in a while. It doesn’t have to be a sweeping change; sometimes even a small shift can do the trick and have a tremendous ripple effect in all that we do. For myself, I know once I embraced the fact that I get to choose how I create each day it thoroughly altered my experience of each and every day. While life is not always a bed a roses, I can choose to wallow in the manure or use it as fertilizer. (OK, I’ll soon stop with the plant metaphors if you can just hang in there…)

Where in your life are you feeling stale or stuck? When was the last time you re-potted you?