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How to Get Unstuck

How to Get Unstuck So You Can Start Working Toward Your Dreams

How to Get Unstuck
Photo by Greg Simenoff

How to Get Unstuck So You Can Start Working Toward Your Dreams

So many people believe they're stuck. Stuck in a dead-end job, stuck in a bad community, stuck in a bad life. Stuck in debt, stuck eating unhealthy food because they believe it's cheaper, stuck in front of the couch because they're too tired, uninspired, or afraid to get off and work toward their dreams.

So many excuses. So many justifications. Justifications for why dreams can't be reached, justifications for eating unhealthy foods, justifications for binge eating, justifications for overdrinking, justifications for why we can't sit down and work toward our goals.

When we live life believing more in our excuses and justifications than in our dreams and aspirations, we emit the same message to those around us. When we are told by critics that we are living in a dream world or that our dreams are only pipe dreams, and when we start to believe those things, we don't just hurt ourselves; we hurt those around us because we continue to spread the lie.

But not all dreams will happen in our desired timeframe. And not all "dreams" are for us. Some of the ideas that we come up with may just be ideas and never go anywhere. Sometimes, when we really sit down and think about it, those ideas are not things we're actually passionate about. But the dreams that we *are* passionate about, the ones that keep us up at night or make us spring out of bed in the morning, those are the dreams to focus on.

I hear people say things like: "that will never happen for me," "I can never get out of debt," "I'll always be ____ [fill in the blank based on a current situation],” “I could never do ____ [fill in the blank based on a dream]."

But then I see people who have pulled themselves up from bad or limiting situations. What makes them different? They saw the challenge as an obstacle rather than a dead-end.

Harold and I didn't think we would ever get out of debt. We never thought we'd be living in Virginia again or that Harold would be back flying for the airlines. Early in our marriage, there were months we only had $50 a month to spend on food at the grocery store, and at one point in our marriage, we were lucky if our bank account wasn't overdrawn. But we started believing that paying off the debt was possible. That's when things started to turn around. And once we started putting our trust in God, we experienced exponential belief in the possibilities.

When we start to believe in the possibilities, when we start to believe that our dreams are possible, we change. Instead of wasting away our lives and thinking we're stuck, we start taking action and living life to the fullest. And by doing that, we spread that positive energy to others, inspiring them to break out of their own comfort zones and live a full life.

One of the big messages our church has conveyed this month is that we need to get comfortable with the ridiculous because God's "normal" is not the same as our "normal." Miracles often seem ridiculous to us but they're normal to God. When things don't seem possible to us, we need to remember that God is greater than any challenge we might face.

Jody Calkins
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