The Mindset Mentor - 7 Tips To Get Out Of A Rut
Episode Date: April 12, 2023Welcome and thank you for joining in on The Mindset Mentor podcast. Even after 18 years of really working on myself, and successfully building one of the top Self Development and Mindset podcasts in t...he world… It’s important that everyone understands that I go through the same struggles that you do. That’s why in today's episode I am going to share some of my personal experiences and super 7 simple techniques that I follow whenever I find myself in a rut and need out QUICK, and more importantly… These simple 7 steps can actually PREVENT yourself from repeatedly falling into a deep rut to begin with: 1. Take action. Whether that's through exercise, or going to Starbucks to get your caffeine fix for the day, or any other means. Inaction will only lead to more inaction, so shift your focus to moving and taking action. 2. Take small steps towards your goals. Stop thinking about everything you need to do and try to focus on one thing at a time. 3. Celebrate your small wins along the way. This will help you continue building the momentum necessary to keep moving FORWARD. 4. Turn off your phone and other electronics that may distract you when you’re working on something that’s important to you. One thing I love to do every day for my mental health is read. I have recently gone back to reading physical books every single morning and it is a great way to start your day AWAY from electronic devices and the forces of the internet. 5. Just focus on the next 60 seconds. This may sound crazy, but by just breaking down your tasks into smaller steps that can be done in short spurts of time… it will make it easier to focus and be clear on what you want to do and need to do next. 6. Ride the momentum. Once you start taking action, the momentum will start to build, making it easier to move from task to task. 7. Get yourself around some people that are good for you. It is important to get around other people that can help you move towards what you want to achieve. Surround yourself with people who will support and encourage you to actually be the best version of yourself possible.. By implementing these seven tips into your daily habits and shifting your behavior like this, you'll be able to get out of even the deepest rut and make progress towards your goals. Remember, being motivated comes from taking action, so take the first step and start making changes today. *BONUS* My gift to help you start experiencing transformation in your life and walk closer towards that freedom. You’ve heard it everywhere, but who ever explains why it can actually be so powerful? I’m here to do that, AND I’m going to give you something that will help you get started… Journaling is a simple yet powerful and effective tool that can help you instantly improve the quality of your life. It can help you develop powerful habits, enhance your self awareness and emotional well being, overcome your self limiting beliefs, and so much more. Visit this link (http://www.mindsetmentorjournal.com/mmu-video-training/ ) for a video I made just for you to help you get started on your transformation journey AND you’ll also get 30 days of written journal prompts that if followed, will help you get so much closer to building a life with more freedom than you can even imagine. If you like this episode… Then make sure to share it with someone that needs to hear it and help us get the message out there so that together we can help make people’s lives better and make the world a better place. Here are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robdialjr/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@robdial?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/themindsetmentee/ Or visit my Youtube page that is designed specifically for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHl3aFKS0bY0d8JwqNysaeA -- Thank you to our sponsors: Aura | https://aura.com/DIAL Shopify | https://shopify.com/dial Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube
Transcript
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Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial.
If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast
episode. And if you're out there and you love this podcast and you want to work on yourself
more, I have a free tool for you to be able to do so. If you go to mindsetmentorjournal.com, you can actually download a free video lesson that I
created that teaches you how to journal as well as giving you 30 free journaling prompts to help
you deepen your journaling practice. So once again, if you're interested in that, go to
mindsetmentorjournal.com right now and get it for free. Today, we're going to be talking about
seven different tips to get yourself out of a rut quickly. When we're in a rut, first off,
like what the hell is a rut? You know, a rut is really like you don't, you're not motivated,
you're not taking action, you don't feel like taking action, and you probably haven't been
taking action for a while. And I want you to realize this. Inaction, not doing something, will always cause
more inaction. And action will always cause more action. Now, some of you guys might be out there
and be like, what the hell? Like, yeah, of course. The way to take action is to take action. That
makes sense. That doesn't help me at all. But I want you to realize this. A lot of us think that,
a lot of people, I've heard this before, think that we need to be
motivated in order to take action.
But psychologists have actually found that in order to be motivated, you need to take
action first.
So instead of motivation comes first and then you take action, you need to take action and
then you will become more motivated as you're taking action.
Because, you know, you take action all day long.
It's just you're not taking the action
that you truly want to in order to build the life that you want. Like, I'll give you an example.
You might be like, well, no, Rob, I haven't been taking action all week. Okay, well, if you have
to pee, you get off of the couch to go pee, don't you? If you're hungry, you get up and you go get
food from the fridge. You don't need to be inspired to go pee. You don't
need to be motivated to go get food. Do you? No. So you're taking action. Even if you're just
sitting there on the couch, staring at the ceiling, you're still taking action. Action
is still being taken. You're sitting or laying, looking. At the ceiling, both of those things are
actions that are being taken.
It's just what you're actually saying is, I want to get out of a rut and take the action that I
need to, to actually move the needle in my life. But if a lion walked in your front door right now,
you wouldn't have to be like, hmm, let me see if I can search and find some motivation for me to run.
No, you would just do it. You would just get moving if a lion walked in your door. So you have to just learn to just get moving.
And really what it comes down to and what I've been focusing on talking about a lot lately
is starting small. Like a lot of times you're not starting because you're thinking about all of the
things that need to be done. And you're like, oh, this is my year-long
goal. And you're thinking about the entire year. You're like, I want to make $100,000 this year.
I want my business to get to a million dollars this year. I don't give a damn about any of those
things. Those things will happen as long as you focus on today, as long as you focus on the next
hour. And really what it comes down to is working on two different things. There's your mind and your
body. Your mind is your thoughts, what you're thinking about, the inspiration that you can
build up inside of yourself, and your body is the way that you're feeling inside of your body,
but also getting your body moving. Sometimes you can hear something, you can go onto YouTube,
you can listen to this podcast, and it inspires you, and you're like, I'm gonna fuck it. I'm gonna take some action. And it motivates you to go actually take some action.
Sometimes you must take action even if you feel like hell and your body will catch up to your
mind, which will then help you create more action. Motivation can come from the body,
but it can also come from the mind. And so we're going to go over seven different,
very simple. This isn't rocket science, but these are just small things. Once again,
it's just small things every single day, compounded over a year, over five years,
over 10 years that make an incredible life. So let's dive into it. The first thing,
get your ass up. That's number one. Just get your body moving. Whatever you have to do,
I don't care what it is that you have to do. If you got to go and get some caffeine, you got to run to Starbucks, you got to drink some
tea, whatever it is that you need to do. Get your body moving. Get up, do some jumping jacks, do some
push-ups. Even if you're just like cussing me out the entire time and you're just each push-up,
you're like, Rob Dial sucks, Rob Dial sucks, Rob Dial sucks. I'm only doing this because he told
me to, right? And you're getting your heart rate up, you can curse me out as much as you want to inside of your house. It doesn't matter to me.
I want you to live the life that you want. So if you're in inaction, you're going to find more
inaction. But if you can just get the mindset of, I just got to do something. I just got to get this
physical body moving. Your heart rate will change. Your breath will change. Your blood will start
moving through your body quicker and you'll start to feel better. And then that brings us to step number two, which is just take
small steps. When you think about all the things you need to do, you're thinking about all of them,
but you're not thinking about one at a time. So I do this every single time. Like,
shit, I'll be honest with you. I did this today. I did not want to work out today.
I don't want to work out any day, if I'm being
honest. There's no part of me that's like, yay, I got to go and work out. But for me, the whole
thing was, I went into my garage. I have a full gym in the garage. And it happens every single
time. I'm like, I don't really want to walk in the garage. So what did I do? I did the exact
same stuff we always do. I went to the fridge and I looked at the fridge. And I was like, oh my gosh, I've got so much work to do today. I've got to record these podcast
episodes. I've also got to plan all these podcast episodes. I've got to do all this stuff.
And I was like, but I've got to get my work in because I know if I get my work in,
my brain will be working better throughout the day. I'll have more energy going into the podcast.
I'll create better podcast episodes. Get your ass in the gym. And so I got my ass in the gym.
I was there and I'm like, all right, I'm here. I'm in my garage. I was like, just do something, dude. Doesn't even
matter what it is. So what did I do? I'm going to be fully transparent with you. I took my speakers
inside of the garage. I put on Slipknot and I freaking just went, I'm going to do 200 jumping
jacks nonstop. And if I don't want to do it after, I'll cross that bridge at the 200 mark.
So I just did, you know, blasting slipknot duality. And I was just freaking blasting it to try to get
some music going into my body to try to get my body moving. And I just did 200 jumping jacks.
At the end of 200 jumping jacks, I was like, I got a little bit more motivation. Let me just go and
do one curl. I'm just going to do one curl.
All right, I got one curl done. All right, I'll just do another one. All right, I'll do another
one. I get my first set done and then it just feels a little bit of momentum on my side. I get
my second set done. About 25 minutes in, I'm literally just like, this is it. I'm in the zone.
It's great. The first six minutes are always the hardest, right? Get the first jumping jack
done. Get the music on. Do whatever it is that you need to do. Get your body physically moving,
but take the small steps. Don't worry about all of the big steps. What I was thinking about is
all of the stuff I had to do today. I was thinking about all of the things that need to be done.
I was thinking about the entire workout that I needed to do. And what helped me was going in, just small step, walk inside of the gym. Okay, here I am. Small
step, put on music. Okay, music's going. Small step, do a jumping jack. Okay, I got one. I'm
going to keep, I'm going to go two, three, four, all the way up to 200. 200, I'm three minutes in,
four minutes in, whatever it is. And I'm like, I'm out of breath. I feel like my body feels a
little bit more into it. I'm feeling a little bit of momentum. So I'm like, I'm out of breath. I feel like my body feels a little bit more into
it. I'm feeling a little bit of momentum. So I'm just riding the momentum into the next thing. I'm
not letting myself look at my phone. I'm not letting myself stop. And then I just did it again.
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to the next level today, shopify.com slash dial. Then what I do is step number three. So the second
thing is to take small steps. The third one is to celebrate your small wins, right? As soon as I got
done, and this is, I call them celebrations for micro wins, right?
Little tiny wins. I'm trying to find reasons to celebrate myself. You can dance after you get
your first set done. You can say, hell yes. Like I was like, dude, you're doing it. You didn't want
to be here. You're doing it. I'm proud of you. And I'm talking to myself. I'm proud of you,
dude. You're doing it. You're going to impact so many more lives because you're going to be
more on point when you record these podcast episodes today than you would be had you not walked into the gym.
And what happens is you do these things that when you start to celebrate yourself, your
body will release dopamine.
Dopamine is subjective.
You can just decide to celebrate anything.
And when dopamine gets released, it starts to make you feel better.
But dopamine is also the molecule of motivation.
So when you get some dopamine, you want more dopamine. We're all dopamine fiends in many
different ways. And so when you celebrate yourself, this is actually like, this isn't
like some stupid thing. This is actually BJ Fogg, which is a psychologist at Stanford,
found that celebrating yourself makes you more motivated to do the next action that got the dopamine in the
first place. It's called a dopamine reward system. You got the dopamine. It made you feel good.
You want to get it again, right? And so that's what you're actually searching for. So you're
celebrating these little tiny wins, okay? So that's the third thing. Celebrate the small wins.
We're focused on the small things. Number four is to turn off your phone. Turn off all electronics if you can. One thing I've done is I've gotten away as much as I started using
Kindle and started using all of that stuff, I've realized that it was just another screen I was
looking at. And so I've actually gone back to reading physical books because I read every
single morning. And I was noticing that when I was reading and looking at a screen with my Kindle,
it was just another screen.
It was like this screen, the blue light was going in my eyes, and it was just my eyes get tired from it.
All of this stuff.
There's a whole lot of, I don't need to dive into it, about what's called vergence eye movement,
which is your eyes actually, you know, converging in the middle, looking from, you know,
towards something that's smaller and how that requires focus and how that actually starts to tire your brain out.
So turn your phone off. Stop
looking at it. One of the things I used to do all the time is I used to always like in between sets
of working out. I'd go to my phone, make sure I didn't get any text messages, check in on the
business, see how all that's going, check my emails, check social media. Maybe I should put
up a reel and you start thinking about all this other stuff. No, disconnect. Whatever it is,
if it's going to the gym, if it's getting your research paper done, if it's writing that next chapter, whatever you can do to turn off as many electronics as possible
to get rid of your phone, to get it away from you, is one of the most important things you could do.
So try to get away from your phone. Try to get away from your TV. Try to get away from electronics.
All I did, put on music and then put my phone off to the side, just let the music play. I didn't try to
DJ and put on, oh, what's my next song? It's just like, nope. All right, I've got a playlist on
Spotify. Literally, it's just a metal playlist on Spotify. Sometimes it's that, sometimes it's
trance, sometimes it's EDM. I've got all these different ones depending on what it is I want for
the day. And then I just leave it over there so I can get my workout going. That's number four.
Number five is to focus on the next 60 seconds.
So I've given you examples of working out.
Okay, my next 60 seconds is just working out.
But it might be the next 60 seconds, what do I need to do to move myself in the right
direction for finishing this chapter of this book that I want to write or to create this
next article?
What are the next 60 seconds?
Because what happens is I want these to be so small that it's just focusing on the next minute instead of
focusing on, okay, well, I'm writing this book. This book, you know, I just finished my book,
64,000 words. It's a lot. But to think of starting a book or being in the middle of a book and how
much further you have to go can become very demotivating. It can become very much paralysis by analysis. But if you say,
what's the next sentence that I need to type? What is the next paragraph? What is the next
meaning that I need to convey in the next 60 seconds to get me one step closer to doing what
I need to do today? And you just focus on the next 60 seconds.
That's it. That's number five. Number six is once you start to feel momentum on your side,
ride the momentum, right? This is one of the things that I find with a lot of people is you
start to get momentum on your side, and the lazy side of you, the ego that wants to keep you in
the exact same place will kind of pull you in. And so when I'm talking about riding the momentum, this is another reason why I don't go back to my phone in between
sets is because, let me just be honest with you, like I found sometimes I'll be in the middle of
a workout and then I'll notice a notification on, you know, oh, my Slack just popped up. One of my
team members is trying to talk to me before the day starts, right? And I'll go to it and then I'll
start, I'll message him back on Slack. And it's, you know, it's supposed to be a 60 second rest in between my sets,
seven minutes go by. And after those seven minutes, there's the momentum's gone. And I'm like,
now we got to go to my next set. Oh my gosh, I'm about to do this next thing. So once you start to
feel momentum on your side, which you will feel momentum on your side. It might be six minutes in,
it might be 15 minutes in, but just take the action. And when you feel the momentum,
ride the momentum. I always give the example of like, if you're pushing a car,
a car is completely stopped. The hardest part of pushing the car is getting it from zero to one
mile an hour. Like just getting it moving is the hardest thing.
So if you have a little bit of momentum on your side,
it makes it so much easier if you just continue with that momentum.
Do whatever you can.
Like I think that one of the most underrated things
that people don't ever really talk about is momentum,
is finding momentum and riding that momentum.
So when I'm going from zero,
from doing nothing to trying to get something
done, I'm trying to just get a little bit of a win, man. I'm trying to make myself feel like
I'm going in the right direction. And I love having this podcast because I don't lie to anybody here.
I tell you all of my struggles, the shit that I dealt with this morning of not wanting to go to
the gym and all of those things. I want you to realize that even though I've been working on
myself for 17, 18 years now, I still deal with all of the exact same things that everybody else does.
It's just I notice these little tiny things, these little, what can I do right now? How can I get a
little bit of momentum? Oh, I'm noticing momentum. Keep the momentum going. I notice my brain
pulling me towards my phone. There's times when I'm literally walking towards my phone. I'm like, no, no, no, no, not doing it. You can't do that, dude. Pull yourself back in.
No, no, no. We're not going to that phone. It's going to fuck up your workout, right? It's going
to, oh, I have an, oh my gosh, I forgot to text this person back. Maybe I should stop writing
this article and go to text them back. No, no, no, no. You got the momentum on your side. Write
down on a piece of paper next to you and just say, hey, text Stacey back. And then you can get back to your writing your article,
whatever it is. Ride the momentum when you feel the momentum. Too many people start to push the
car. The car starts moving and they're like, oh, hold on. Let me go to my phone. And the car stops
moving and they stop the momentum. Now you got to push it again and get it going. Once you feel
the car moving, once you feel it going, get it done. Keep on going. Okay.
And the last one, which is, I think is a very important one. And this happened to me. This is
why I'm using my life as an example. Try to get around other people that can help you move towards
what it is that you want to. Earlier this week, I don't know why I'm using all the examples of
working out so far right now in this episode, probably because the workout's been a struggle this week. But earlier this week, I didn't want to,
I feel like I say it every episode, I didn't want to work out, right? I was like, I'm not
going to work out today. And I knew I had a group of my friends that were working out over at my
friend's house. And I was like, okay, it's going to be a 25 minute drive to go to his house.
It's just easier not to get in my car and
to drive over there. Maybe I should just stay home and maybe I'll do some yoga. Maybe I'll do
some stretching. And I was like, no, bitch, you're going to go. You're going. And so I forced myself
to go because it's a group of guys that were over there. I'm very competitive. So I know that if I'm
around other people or if there's just the energy of working out and moving, it just, I end up getting into the energy of it, right?
I forced myself to go to his house. True story. Got to his house. Tried to talk myself out of
going into his house. This is really what happened. Tried to talk myself out of going into
his house. I'm like, I'm here. I don't really want to do it though. I got shit I got to do.
I've got a business. I've got all these employees. I've got things I'm working on. I've got stuff I've got to do. I was like, get up,
get out of your car, go say hi to somebody. Because once you say hi, you can't walk away.
I forced myself to walk in. So first off, I forced myself to get in my truck. I forced myself to
drive 25 minutes. I forced myself to get out of the truck and not turn back around. And then I
ended up working out for an hour and 21 minutes with everybody.
I was wearing my Apple Watch.
An hour and 21 minutes
and I burned a thousand calories.
I would not have burned a thousand calories by myself.
And so sometimes you just need
to get around other people.
If you know that you need to do some work,
maybe one of your friends wants to meet you
at a coffee shop
and you know that they're not going to take
a whole lot of your time with talking,
but just being in the energy of being around them will help. Or maybe you just you at a coffee shop and you know that they're not going to take a whole lot of your time with talking, but just being in the energy of being around them will
help. Or maybe you just go to a coffee shop and you don't meet anybody, but being around other
people who are doing that, you know, you're chugging your caffeine, you're seeing other
people that are getting stuff done. You're like, you know what? I'm going to get stuff done as
well. And so these are just some simple ways to get yourself out of a rut is to just focus on the
little teeny tiny things to get yourself moving,
to get the momentum going. Once you know some momentum going, you keep the momentum going.
If you do this, it is a very simple way, not easy, very simple way of getting yourself out of a rut.
So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your
Instagram stories right now and tag me in it, RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. I love every single time that
you guys share it. Every episode, hundreds of you guys share it and I greatly, greatly appreciate
it. And sometimes I send you guys messages, hey, thank you so much for sharing this because
I appreciate it. That's how this podcast grows. It's how it's become, you know, from nothing to
one of the top 100 podcasts in the entire world. So with that, I'm going to leave the same way I
leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better.
I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.