Fun Ways to Grow

I do not know about you, but sometimes I feel less than great. Low, grouchy, fed-up, and bored, are all words you could use to describe what I am like on those days and I am probably not the best company. The thing is, days like those are part of the deal with being human – it is not an elective. There will always be off days, and that is okay.

But what happens when you get a whole string of those off-days, maybe lasting weeks, months or even years? Too many of us say that we are in a rut, feel stuck, fed-up, or bored, and admit that we do not want things to be that way, but we do not know what to do to change. That is the problem; when you are in a rut, you do not have the energy or motivation to change things for the better, and it is tough to find the insight or resources you need to make that jump.

Here are some fun and easy ways you can use right now, to climb or better yet, leap, out of the rut and start to get something better for yourself.

1. Do something differently

Life tends to run smoothly when we establish systems and routines for things, but the problem comes when things run too smoothly and we become blinded to any ideas or choices that sit outside of our routine. All the stuff we do every day becomes the norm, running on auto-pilot, and it becomes our whole world.

Start with making one or two simple changes to your day – be it at breakfast time, your radio station, gym routine, route to work, lunch routine, etc. Do not worry about what the changes are, or whether they are right or wrong. Just make a couple of simple choices that will serve you well.

Doing something differently or changing parts of your routine, instantly takes you out of the norm, and allows you to shake off the things that make you feel confined.

2. Use your intuition

Your intuition is a powerful ally, and we all have it even though you might not recognize it. The dictionary says that intuition is:
1a. The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition.
1.b. Knowledge gained by the use of this faculty; a perceptive insight.
2. A sense of something not evident or deducible; an impression.

One of the best friends you will ever have in life is your intuition. Tuning into it, and learning to trust it, is something that can have some truly remarkable effects. Accessing your intuition is a bit like working and developing a muscle, but unfortunately it can be harder to locate than a bicep or quadricep, which tend to stay in the same place. Here are some quick tips for accessing and trusting it.

• Practice maintaining an open-minded, playful, experimental, non-judgmental attitude. This is the most fertile ground to tap into your intuition.
• Practice making wild guesses in your everyday life. Guess what a salesperson’s name is, what a new person or place will look like, or who it is calling on the phone. Do not worry about getting it wrong, you are just exercising that muscle.
• Try a few simple observation exercises in your daily life. Whether you are in a restaurant, on a train, in a bar, or out shopping, practice noticing non-verbal behaviour in others. Look for shifts in posture, eye movements, vocal tone or tempo, etc. Guess how they are feeling or what they are talking about.