5 ways to break out of a rut (and the real meaning of Groundhog Day)

 “The key is not to prioritise what is on your schedule but to schedule your priorities” - Stephen Covey

Every day I take an early morning walk or run. And I pass pretty much the same people at the same place at the same time each day. Sometimes this genuinely freaks me out.

It would not surprise me if I started waking up each morning to I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher and Bill Murray jumped from behind a tree to tell me about Punxsutawney Phil's weather predictions for the season.

Ever feel like you are trapped in Groundhog Day?

It is so easy to get stuck in a rut. Most of us are creatures of routine and find comfort and security from that. The danger with ruts is that you can end up living the same day every day rather than living fresh days with new experiences and people.

That can leave us feeling like life has become passé and we are going through the motions rather than constantly building something new and exciting.

Feeling trapped by routine? Here are some thoughts on how to break out of it.

1. Plan a break from whatever you do

I was talking to someone in the entertainment industry a few months ago and he pointed out that his industry was all about people needing a break from whatever they do, even a break from doing very little.

If you are retired, you need a break from that, or you get stale and frozen by inertia. Even if you are doing something everyday that you love, you still need a break from it occasionally to really appreciate how much you enjoy it.

For most of us, daily routine is about work and holding a household together. The statistics show huge numbers of people don’t take their holidays. This is not healthy. It is not only important to have regular recharge and refresh breaks; it is also important to plan them. Always having something to look forward to is a big part of rut-breaking.

2. Create some novel experiences

The importance of novel experiences has come more starkly into the spotlight during the pandemic. Lockdowns and restrictions have scaled back options on what we can do in our day. In many cases it has taken a working day with a variety of activities and interactions and replaced it with hours staring at video screens.

In the absence of automatic novel experiences, we have to be a lot more proactive in planning them.

This can mean plotting mid-week social experiences with family or friends. I meet a lot of people who say that their Monday to Friday is programmed and they totally rely on the weekend for novel experiences. Putting some spice into the mid-week can help add lustre to the routine.

My favourite weeks are the ones ones when I do a movie or a concert mid-week (something of a carry over from being a kid and the apparent decadence of staying up late on a ‘school night’).

3. Create a new habit

Conventional wisdom suggests that it takes three weeks to form a habit and about three months to lock it in. This requires you to start at some point.

If you are stuck in ruts and routines that are getting you down, you need to change the habit now. Not next week. Not next month. Not next year.

You also need to schedule the new habit in your day, the same way you schedule meetings and meals. As Stephen Covey says, it is about scheduling priorities (including now ones) not just scheduling the usual routine. Then you have to accept that you might have to fight the strong forces of rutdom for months before your change of habit is locked in. That is okay. You can do that.

4. Change the vantage point

The world can look completely different, depending on where you are sitting. Changing your vantage point can help you see the same world and the same life in a completely different light.

This can mean trying a different coffee shop, proactively catching up with some different people, taking a different approach to your job if you are getting bored, and just mixing things up a bit.

5. Change the route

If you walk or run, there is something comforting about taking the same route every day. There is also something unnerving about it.

The movie Groundhog Day is typically referenced as a movie about a man who is stuck in the same day every day.

The reality of the movie is that, even though he is technically stuck in the same day, Bill Murray’s character lives that same day differently every time. He cannot control how others live their days, but he can change his own.

What’s more, the longer he lives the same day but changes what he does in the day, the better his life becomes. The real lesson from Groundhog Day is our ability to control our own script even in a world that is scripted around us.

And the more we mix up the routine, the deeper becomes our life experience.

When we are old, it will be interesting to look back and ask if we have lived tens of thousands of days, or we have lived the same day tens of thousands of times.

Comments in this post are personal and unrelated to my day job. Shane Rodgers is a writer and business executive with a keen interest in what makes people tick and the forces that shape our daily lives.