Finding My Way Out of a Rut

Lately, I’ve been in a rut.

The gym feels harder to get to. My routines don’t matter to me as much. My nutrition is fine, but only because I’ve kept things so simple that I eat the same meals on repeat.

I’ve been here before. And if you’ve lived long enough, you probably have too.

The first step, I’ve realized, is accepting that we don’t stay dialed in all year round. Life comes in seasons. For me, winter always makes things harder. It’s darker, colder, and I don’t feel the same pull to push. There’s nothing wrong with that. Breaks are part of the process.

The key is not letting the rut turn into regression. My solution is something I call the minimum viable day. When I’m not at my best, I don’t try to do everything. I just try to do the few things that stop me from sliding backward. Enough to maintain. Enough to hold the line.

From there, the work is building momentum again. Momentum is real. When you’re in it, good habits feel automatic. When you’re not, even simple things feel like a struggle.

What helps is finding a keystone habit—the one action that, if I get it right, starts to pull the rest of my life back on track. I have an old module on this concept here, and it’s worth revisiting.

For me, that habit is movement. Walking and lifting weights. Whenever I get those two back in place, I notice everything else starts to fall into line: mobility, breathwork, meditation, even my sleep.

So that’s where I’ve chosen to start. Not by overhauling everything, but by recommitting to the one habit that anchors me.

If you’ve found yourself in a rut, I’d encourage you to do the same. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Find your keystone habit. Focus on that until it feels steady. Once it does, the rest becomes much easier.