Who else feels like they’re stuck in a slump?

I got a message in the Start Designing Life community about feeling in a slump and being frustrated with not being able to make progress.

The following is my unedited response to their message and questions.

Sorry you're in that space of feeling in a slump i can totally relate to the feelings you've shared and have experienced times like this as well.

mostly when i was back in Ireland & working a 9-5 in a startup - time flew by but not in a good way I'd say.

is there any area that you'd specifically like to focus on right now?

life can feel overwhelming like we are trying to juggle everything at once. But sometimes it's easier and I would say better to just focus on 1 area at a time. that way it makes it easier to manage, focus, & have enough energy to commit to. sure other areas still might have things you want to do in them but they are not the focus right now.

also tracking progress can help with the time-blindness i get this too. One of the only ways i've found to really help myself is to track the progress of where I have been doing & what I have done.

why? it's easy to get stuck in the day-to-day feeling = 'I'm doing all this stuff but i'm going no where'.

Personal experience

as some of you might have seen i've had the ⁠🏋 Quest for 85kg: A Warrior's as a long term goal. (this is a long term goal in the SDL community

1. it was my single focus for a while - even though i had work, emotion etc to work on as well

2. i put more of my time, energy & attention just on that area to figure it out. started daily walking, signed up to gym, intermitant fasting, creating a new eating pattern, reduced junk food etc etc

3. i tracked the journey each week by taking a photo of the scales which helped not only with keeping accountable. it gave me motivation as i saw the progress i was making each week - that gave me hope, belief and encouragement.

My lesson

• the truth is that i lost a tonne of weight but if i didn't track it i don't think i would have really noticed it. Why not? because everyday i would look at myself and feel the same

• it was only when i jumped on the scales that i could actually see real data and measurable outcome.

• going further than this. it was only until my gf arrived in Bali after not seeing me for a few months that it really hit home. she was genuinely shocked at how i looked - she couldn't get over how much i had lost (around 15kg)

• to me i barely noticed any difference (it was 1-1.5kg a week) of gradual change. but to here she saw an instant transformation of 15kg - by her reaction i started to realise a bit more of how far i had gone in a couple of months.

Easy takeaways

• focusing on 1 thing helps makes things more manageable

• tracking progress helps accountability, support, motivation & morale.

• it's easy to get stuck in the day-to-day 'i am going no where' but that can just be a feeling in reality you might be making progress that just isn't being acknowledged

The coolest part for me

• by making progress in that 1 area ⁠🏃 Body it boosts the self-confidence of being able to apply the same principles to other areas of life. for me it's now work.

• even though i might get a bit frustrated that i haven't made as much progress as i would have liked with SDL etc I know this is part of that same process that i went before with the ⁠🏋 Quest for 85kg: A Warrior's… and what is probably happening is that i am making steps but it's hard to see it when you're right in the middle of it all.

Closing thoughts

• what you or anyone else here is a personal journey. i have no idea what you're going through or the circumstances. what worked for me might be different to what works for you.

• but hopefully sharing some different ideas or perspectives might give you some new ideas to explore!

• in the end we're all just figuring out this life