Why you're stuck in life (and how to get moving)

Through these last few months, I've been really stuck. I haven't made much visible progress on my goals, I've been low on energy, and I've been letting tasks slip through the cracks.

This is the default state for most people. They don't build anything meaningful, they never get anything done, and they live an empty and meaningless life until they retire at 70. The rest of their days are spent staring at a TV until they die.

I've seen this exact scenario play out many times. In the neighborhood I live in we have a lot of old people. They worked a 9-5, never got anything done in life, and now live out the rest of their days mindlessly rotting in front of a screen.

This is how to avoid that life.

What it means to be stuck (and why you aren't making progress)

I define "being stuck" as not making visible progress on your goals. As much as you might work, you don't actually get anything done.

This is due to a principle I call productive busyness. Even if we are "busy" we may not be productive. And if we are productive, we may not be busy. When you are productive and busy, you make enormous progress on your goals. You spend a lot of time working while also making lots of progress.

The core difference between busyness and productivity is focus. Productivity is working smarter while busyness is working harder. Busyness is trying to do as many things as possible, while productivity is doing a few things that move the lever forward the most.

A core cause of getting stuck in life is forgetting this difference. You don't need to do 20 different morning routines stacked into one. You just need a couple routine tasks you get done every morning to get your brain into an "it's time to work" mode. You don't need to work on 5 different projects at the same time. One or two are fine.

Most of the time, when people get stuck they don't have a core goal they're working towards. For me, I'm working towards financial independence. I want to be able to support a family while being able to spend maximal time with them. If you have one core goal, it becomes much easier to understand what you're doing, what you've done, and where you're going. Knowing those things is how you stay productive.

The secret to getting unstuck

I have a simple method I use when I'm stuck in life. It goes like this:

• Take a look at your current workload. Write down what you do in an average day.

• Ask: what can I cut out that isn't important right now?

• Write down your new task list. It should be 30%-50% shorter.

Let's dive into each of these.

The first step, writing down what you do in a day, is pretty simple. You take a look at an average day and write down what you do. The key here is not looking over simple things like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. That goes on the list as well. Every single thing you might do in an average day needs to be on this list.

Cutting out tasks is a little bit tougher. Most people can't cut out their 9-5 because that's how they pay the bills. But you can cut out watching Netflix for 3 hours before bed. Anything that doesn't add to your goal needs to go.

Like I said earlier, you should have 1 singular goal that you're trying to achieve. This could be a huge goal or a smaller goal, but it can't just be something you can get done in a day. For example, graduate college is a good goal. Write 200 words is not. You can write 200 words in a day. You can not graduate college in a day.

The final step, writing down your new task list, is the simplest of them all. You just write down everything you didn't cross out. At this point, your list should be 30%-50% shorter, at a minimum. If it isn't, you didn't cut enough out. You need to be absolutely ruthless. Cutting something out doesn't mean you'll never do it again, it just means for the time being, there are more important things to do.

How to accomplish insane things (it's simpler than you think)

I've used this principle many times in my life when I wanted to achieve something big. When I was designing my first product, I broke down what I was doing and cut out everything I could that didn't work towards that goal. When I wanted to learn full stack development, I did the exact same thing. If you want to do anything, it's possible by simply breaking down what you're already doing.

Here's the brutal truth: most people are stuck in life. They've been stuck all their lives. They will never achieve anything note-worthy because they are to busy wasting their time doing things that don't matter. It's unfortunate, but it's true. And it's not their fault, either. No one has told them that their way of life doesn't lead to what they want. No one has told them why it doesn't work, and what they should do instead.

But that leaves a gap of opportunity. If you get unstuck, set your priorities straight, and ruthlessly strip everything out of your life that doesn't add to your goals, you will go so much farther than anyone else. And that's not because people are lazy. It's because they don't know. They don't know the difference between busyness and productivity. They don't know that all the extra things they are doing are limiting what they can achieve.

Get unstuck, and you will be wildly successful in whatever you do.

See you on the next one.

-Luke