Getting unstuck

In a rut? Stuck? No forward progress?  Feel like you're in quicksand losing ground?

Summer awaits us...and even beckons us with the prospects of a vacation, blue skies, a trip to the ocean, an afternoon by a stream, a weekend with extended family...something other than the ordinary routine.  The anticipation of that can be exhilarating--pointing to an event or a series of events that potentially change what seems to be the perfunctory rhythm of life.

But there is reality awaiting us, when the summer is over, the vacation is spent, the family has said "good bye" until the next holiday weekend. 

It is back to work, back to school, back to the household regimen, back to the rut of predictability and boredom, if not sheer drudgery.

How do you change that?  What steps can you take tom transform the routine and predictable into something exciting and challenging?  Here's some things to consider.

Are you thankful? 
All too often what we have we take for granted, forgetting we are blessed to have good health, a job that pays the bills, a roof over our head, enough food to keep us dieting, a country where we are not worrying about our safety...and a host of other blessings not common in other parts of the world.

Are you intentional?
Do you focus on  each day as an opportunity to excel in what you do and do you seek to influence others around you for good, to keep yur eyes open for someone less fortunate than you?

Are you creative?
Have you considered improving your workplace, increasing your productivity, identifying a meaningful goal for each day on the job beyond the expected?

Are you positive?
Do you approach each new day with dread or do you see it as a new and fresh opportunity to invest your energy and ability in something or someone?

Are you accountable?
Have you enaged your spouse or a friend and said, "Here's what I am proposing to do.  Ask me at the end of the week how I did?"

Consider asking these questions of yourself each day and then measuring the quality and content of your life by how well you respond.

And see if you don't get unstuck--out of the rut of complacency and bordeom that are sure to bury you until the next vacation or sunny day.