A lot of times in our lives, after making a significant progress, after following a certain path and having little to no hurdles, we often feel stuck. We hit a dead end, we can’t figure out which way to carve out a path from here on, we can’t find a way in our own minds to overcome a situation.

The degrees vary, but if you’re like me, you feel bogged down to an extent where the difference between who you were a couple of months ago, to who you are now might be extremely evident, and sometimes unbelievable.

You crave to get that personality back, you crave for that confidence back, you crave for a lot of things that you think you had, but don’t at that moment. You think if you made that decision correctly, you start to doubt if you’re good enough, you have feelings of anxiety and panic take over you but you don’t know why or how!

All because time’s running out, we haven’t done anything significant with our lives and at this particular moment, nobody can possibly help us but ourselves! And this is probably the first time in our lives that we are here by ourselves. It’s like getting lost in a crowded supermarket and not being able to find our moms for the rest of our lives.

What do we do when things get hard in our own minds?

After reading about successful people’s lives, meditating, running, exercising, talking to people who seem to have it together at that moment, spending time with myself, assessing what kind of person I am, what are important to me, I have certain theories in mind.

1. Realize that taking it slow doesn’t mean you’re losing

We all are out to conquer the world, make lots of money, buy the best car, invest in stocks early on without even knowing how the market works (I’ve been here too) and just trying to win as early as possible. We just forget that more than sprinting, life’s a marathon. You strategize, pick the right people around you, learn, invest in people, yourself and in financial assets, build a network, capitalize. All of this takes time.

2. Take care of your mind like how you would with your body

One word. Meditation.

I, for one, can meditate, but would end up sleeping 5 minutes into it. But I tried to get through it. Headspace really helped get me on track and just helped me with starting off with meditation. Any level of anxiety you might feel, it automatically makes it go away! Atleast for that moment. That works for me, as long as it gets me to get things done.

I meditate 10 minutes in the morning when I wake up. That’s it!

It’s just an incredible practice to have, especially if there is no other resource to help you. What could you lose?

3. Watch something comical

I love movies that are of the drama genre! Inception, The hateful eight, Breaking Bad, Black Mirror, I’ve watched it all! I even write short stories that are similar. The problem with this, that I realized quite later was that I only ended up watching this or reading this that I was wired to feel that way.

Real life is not so sad all the time. It’s hard, yes. But not as sad and as dramatic as what we see in movies. So I switched for a while to start watching some stand up comedy. Real comedians making fun of real issues. Satirical comedy that actually kind of brightened my day a little bit.

Just because I smiled more, I did more things simply because I would feel better!

4. Look at milestones, instead of goals. For now.

I’m an ambitious person. I am NOT satisfied with having a job for a huge company even if I’m enjoying it. I’d rather sacrifice my “joy” in work in order to build something that the world can have just because of me!

And at times, it gets hard to only focus on them when my mind is a rut and can’t even manage a single day without feeling like the whole world is falling apart. At these times, I’ve begun to notice that all I need to focus on are the next two months and the things that I need to do to get there successfully.

If you’re stuck and can’t figure anything out, and are panicking, you might as well figure out your next year first. Break only the next year down into very few things.

“My life will be better once I graduate, once I get a job for now, stand on my own two feet and start managing finances for myself” and also achieving all of this in a year is a step towards your end goals; Instead of ignoring all of this and only focusing on “becoming a Billionaire”. You won’t get there if you can’t through one year first.

5. Maintain relationships

It can really get hard to put on a straight face a lot of times, appear normal, smile, laugh at jokes and even mingle, when all you want to do is avoid people, sleep, be by yourself, figure your mood and only do the social stuff when you feel like it. This is a recipe for disaster. Your friends will sniff out the weakness, sense that you’re being an asshole, assess how you did that on that day and how it was not cool. Simply because you’re making the environment in a way for them to say these things.

Before putting the blame on anybody else, and you should to an extent, let’s take a hard look at ourselves. Yes, they should probably be there for you and take care of you like you’re a 20 or 30 something year old baby. But, let’s move on, shall we?

Some days, it’s going to get hard. Really hard. But other days, suck it up, put on a smile, BE there. You don’t know what you’re saving by doing just this much.

6. Do NOT indulge in negative self talk

You have no idea the kind of power your thoughts have, and the kind of things you can manifest with those thoughts. If you don’t have someone who can tell you that you’re awesome, or good enough to make you stop thinking this way, then know this – what you think WILL manifest!

You think you aren’t good enough, and you start to mess up because you think that about yourself anyway. You keep messing up and the only thing you feel is pity for yourself, and being in that state is the absolute worst.

You think you won’t graduate, and everything you do, even subconsciously will align in a way to make those thoughts real. It’s insane!

So, how about we try this manifesting thing, but with a little positivity. Nothing too extreme. Let’s just start with, “This is just a phase. I can get through this!”.

You aren’t losing anything here.

7. This too, shall pass

At the end of the day, whatever your position is, you can always turn it around! No matter how hard it is, no matter how hopeless you may feel!

I used to only hang out with overachievers back home. Their habits, their energy, their beliefs and ideals was just insane to be around! It rubbed off on me. I still talk to them, follow them and look at the things that they are still achieving. It fills me with hope!

I recently spoke to a friend of mine who is a cofounder of an extremely high performing startup. She just got married, and I wanted to wish her well. I only found out then about the hurdles that she was facing during those early startup days where “bootstrapping” was not just a word, but the ONLY word in her life at that point.

My own mother, having heard of the numerous challenges that she had to face were just not my level of problems at all! If she could deal with them and rise up with such grace, then so can I. So can you. So can anybody here. This too, shall pass!