Stuck?

Prolog: Putting the Fresh in Fresh Start

Feeling Stuck? It’s a common question and theme on goodfables.com. My posting has been so dormant lately, it would be fair to wonder if I was projecting every time I asked, “Feeling Stuck?” Had I gone stale somehow?

I have reworked and extended much of my material for the benefit of EncourageEncounter, the company Connie and I created to work with people who feel Stuck? and coach professionals who support people who feel Stuck? It’s a new, more vital purpose for familiar ideas. It’s a fresh start.

The concept of Stuck? begins so much of this work. It’s the uncomfortable starting point which can begin the discovery of personal wisdom. Below is a fresh take on a familiar idea. This post is an excerpt from the first chapter of my eBook, Feeling Stuck? From Stuck? to Move! in 10 Words (click on the link for a free copy).

What is Stuck?

We are stuck when we repeat the same (or a similar) unproductive behavior to the same (or a similar) predicament: We are stuck when we continually refuse to do the important tasks on our ToDo list, when we refuse to seek help for our anxieties, when we repeatedly avow faith in damaging, self-limiting beliefs…

We are stuck when we repeat the same unproductive behavior to the same predicament: Imagine an 18-month child looking at a pile of M&Ms. You ask him to pick up one M&M. Does he pick up one or many?

He picks up many. You empty his hands before he stuffs his drooling face. Again, you ask him to pick up one M&M. He picks up many.

The infant is stuck. You won’t let him eat M&Ms if he picks up more than one. How do you think he feels?

What does he need to do to get unstuck? He needs to learn about the concept of “one.”

Once he learns the behavior of “one,” he can crunch on candy. He learned a more productive behavior and can Move! (Read: eat chocolate!)

We have known the behavior “one” almost all our lives (although I still struggle when I see chocolate chip cookies). If we hold up one finger when someone asks, we behave “one” automatically, intuitively. Fairly said, we too are stuck, but in this case with the most productive “one” behavior available.

The Necessity of Stuck?

Stuck? is a very vital human quality. It’s the core our all our learned behaviors. It’s the means to adopt our innate instincts and knowledges to the world we live in.

Stuck? creates the nurture to match our nature. Don’t condemn stuck, even if at times, it feels tormenting.

We want the best of our “nurture” behaviors to be as intuitive as our instinctive behaviors are automatic. We also want to have to learn new behaviors when the ones we rely on become unproductive.

Indeed, with each story of a word (each chapter of this book), I hope to unstick your learned behavior associated with the word, cause a shift which bring in a deeper understanding of our human nature, and then help you practice the new behavior so the richer meaning of the word becomes, one again, stuck.

As we practice this process of reexamining what we already know, I hope we learn what most authors know: Words, like ideas, beliefs and truths, don’t have fixed meanings, but are malleable in the hands of craftsmen. So are the experiences of our lives.

Stuck? gives us so much of our nurture - the accumulated lessons of our lives - the sense of efficient action, calm vitality, and ready understanding. But what of the Stuck? which causes distress? What of our nurture which isn’t so nurturing?