Michael

For years and years, I practiced and worked extremely hard at staying in my rut. In fact, I became an expert at it. I traveled my rut so often that it had become deep. It was hard to see out of it.

My rut consisted of staying in a job that I could barely get out of bed to go to every day.

My rut consisted of doing the same routines day in and day out with little to no change.

My rut consisted of eating vegetarian for 7 years even though it was clearly not working for me and negatively effecting my health. (Note: Please don’t take this as me saying that there is anything at all wrong with a vegetarian diet. It just didn’t work for me.)

My rut consisted of wearing clothes that were clearly 15 years out of style.

I could go on, but you get the picture. One day in the spring of 1992, my wife at the time, suggested that I go and put in an application with a new company in town. It was being managed by someone I admired that no longer worked at the company I was currently associated with. So, very uncharacteristicly of me at the time, I went down to the new office, put in an application, had two interviews and went home.

Nothing happened for 3 months. I got a call one morning from the Operations Manager who had previously interviewed me. He was calling to offer me a job, not as a beginner computer operator but a senior computer operator, even though I had never done anything like this before. WOW! I immediately quit the job I hated. And no, I didn’t give them much notice; three days to be exact.

I started the new job on the following Monday and my life was changed forever. It felt like someone had reached down, grabbed me and jerked me out of the rut. I had been down there so long; the sun blinded my eyes for a moment.

Even though I am no longer married to Beth, I will always be eternally thankful for her simple suggestion to apply for the new job that spring morning. So, remember that seemingly small actions can have tremendous effect in the long term. It’s the Butterfly Effect Theory.

So, what small action can you take right now to make dramatic changes in your life? Is it simply changing how you ask yourself questions as Kim discusses in her post called Empowering Questions? Can you change something in your routine; take a different direction to work, go to a different store or coffee shop, don’t clean on Saturdays, etc.? Do you have something that you have always wondered what would happen if you tried it? Pick something now and make the decision.

Here’s to getting out of your rut,

Michael