I know the feeling of trying to do something new/different but something in you keeps holding you back. It could be indecisiveness, laziness, fear or probably the conviction of your heart. And when you keep doing one thing over and over even when it's so clear that things have changed, methods have been upgraded, mindsets have been shifted yet you still fail to do things differently, you have created a rut for yourself.
I want to tell a brief story before I proceed.
The nature of my day job requires that I move around the city, and to make this easier and less stressful for me, I decided to charter a tricycle for the day. Every thing was going smoothly till I had to rush up to meet up a meeting. Talking to the tricyclist who is way older than me, I told him to look for a short cut that would take me home in minutes so I attend the meeting in time.
In my head, I had already mapped the short cut oo but my driver had another thing in his head. He took a turn that was actually a "long cut." And when I asked him of his intentions, he flared up. I remained mute and silently watched him take me on a road tour. It wasn't funny at all and I was actually trying to understand what the driver was calculating.
Day one passed and it happened again, I had another meeting to attend but sadly I couldn't meet up because my driver did the exact same thing. Same road, same turns and all.
To you this might look nothing or something not even worth writing about but to me, it hit differently. It got me thinking about other people in the world that have created ruts in their lives or diverse wheels of live, people who are bound by a particular mindset, people who believe that ancient knowledge is the best, people who refuse to listen to other people. These people will keep doing the same thing over and over but expect different results.
Because of this man's little act, I had to go back and reevaluate my life. I kept saying to myself, "it's too early to start walking in a rut, it's way too early."
If you're reading this, I want you to take out time and analyze what looks like a non productive routine in your life, check out for ruts and help yourself walk out of them.
You won't make a difference if you're walking in a rut.
I hope this helps.