It seems like I've been in and out of ruts all my life. I have learned a few things about them over the years; it has taken me a long time because I am a little

It seems like I've been in and out of ruts all my life. I have learned a few things about them over the years; it has taken me a long time because I am a little bit stupid. Here are some notes, hopefully they will be useful to some faster learners: * When I'm in a rut, one of the things that keeps me in the rut longer is trying to force my way out of it. The fastest way out of a rut is to embrace it and forgive myself for being in it. Knowing this and being able to do it are apparently two really different things, because I have spent a long time trying to apply this knowledge and I'm still not there yet. * When I genuinely enjoy doing something, I never have to put effort into avoiding falling into a rut. * So, falling into a proper rut usually means that something is wrong. I stopped enjoying it even though I didn't want to. Maybe I'm tired, maybe I'm really stressed out, maybe I just need to do something else for a little while. * I'm often unaware or unwilling to accept that something is wrong, so the battle against my own nature begins. All of my natural coping mechanisms for dealing with this are wrong. * A lot of ruts are caused by chasing a long-term, external goal, for longer than I really want to achieve that goal. Running a half marathon, while not my thing, is a great example; it's something you train up for by running a lot. If I were running because I enjoyed running, then one day I could probably do a half-marathon and I would probably mostly enjoy that too. But if I were to run because I wanted to do a half-marathon, then one day I would not enjoy the running and that's when the opportunity for a rut happens. (While not a runner, I have been an on-and-off again long-distance hiker and peak bagger; when I just went out for fun, I did it a lot and was in great shape. When I decided I should train up to bag all of California's fourteeners, it stopped being fun and I stopped doing it.) * Most highly successful people, whether they're athletes or developers or just my more accomplished friends, have gotten there by doing something they enjoy. Sure, they've had challenges, but overall they just did the thing they wanted to do, and found success at it. I cannot be as successful as them at their thing, because I don't enjoy their thing the way they do. I'm not ever going to be Peter Croft or take-your-pick-of-role-model-of-the-day, but if I could find my thing, then I might get to be my better me.