Getting Out of ANY Personal Rut

Practice, practice, practice the thoughts or actions that you want to make “your” gully

As the sheep discovered, simply trying to avoid a rut that is sitting there waiting to trap you doesn’t work very well. Because, given the way neural pathways work, you are going to find your way into and travel along a gully of some sort! The question is which one.

You need to fill in the bad gully – and dig out and travel in the positive one!

Taking the example of “I want to stop complaining about people so much,” what if you create a personal affirmation rule? You say that for one month, if you ever want to say something negative about someone, that you say something positive and affirming instead? Well, pretty soon, you’ll see those negative thoughts actually not arising as often to begin with, and the positive ones appearing in their place. You are creating a deeper and deeper positive gully in your thoughts.

And if you keep going, those positive, kind, uplifting thoughts and words about people will be your norm! The negative ones will feel unsettled and uncomfortable. So if you ever find yourself having a bad day or grumpy thoughts about someone, those are now outside your normal pathways. As a result, you will likely find yourself gratefully landing on thoughts that are positive, peaceful, and uplifting instead.

Whatever you practice will become your default pattern.

As I pointed out in one of the daily devotionals in my devotional book Find Joy (which deals with this topic, among others), “Negative chatter and a complaining heart are just us being really good at practicing the wrong thing.”

Let’s all remember the “sheep video” and make a commitment to fill in those entrapping ruts by purposely stopping ourselves from practicing the wrong things – and practicing the right things instead.

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