Practical Resources To Get Out of Your Head and Back In The Game

Stuck?

Find yourself asking questions, playing out worst-case scenarios and trying to opt out of making decisions or an impact?

Happens all the time.

Delay the decisions and pick your vice to kill some time and delay the responsibility – food, weed, booze, TV, drugs, Facebook, gambling. All great ways to forget about problems. Not really great ways to solve them.

Despite the travel over the last couple months, I found myself sinking into some of this, delaying decisions, working in circles, avoiding the things I wanted to do but had enough resistance to rationalize putting off. Putzing around, getting nothing done.

Here’s some practical resources on what I’ve done to kickstart myself out of this rut and get back in the game.

You might find them helpful too.

Write (like with a pen and paper)

Yes, I know there’s 300 journaling apps. I use one of them semi-regularly. That said, there’s nothing quite like disconnecting from your computer and getting back to pen and paper. It’s slower, yeah, but you can think things through, don’t have to be worried about apps or websites distracting you and you get a physical break from a device that otherwise is on you 24/7 (if you’re anything like me).

You also get to download whatever craziness is in your head and get it down on paper. Then you can close your notebook, forget about it and move on with your day.

Read

Again, I know your iPad has books on it. Get off it. Get a real, physical book or at least a kindle with no apps on it.

The key – again – is getting a break from a computer or other device, creating space and doing something useful.

After holding on to it for way too long, I started diving into Unbreakable (thanks Mike). The story, if you haven’t read it, is incredible and when your read stories about people who did the impossible – it helps give context your experience and often makes your problems look small in comparison (and therefore, easier to hurdle).

Meditate

I feel like every blog these days talks about meditation. I’m not sure how many people are actually doing it, but it’s the “cool thing’ to do.

Unfortunately, it’s hard as sht to actually do

Personally, I still suck at this, but I’m starting to get better at doing the 3-minute body scans with Calm.

I’m going to graduate to 5 minute scans here any day now #beensayingthatformonthsnow and eventually, I’d like to stop using an app altogether and just go app-free, but I’m still working on it 😉

Get Outside

Something about the outdoors allows your body to do a hard reset.

If you’re having trouble sleeping, sleeping outside for a week can actually give your body a hard reset with your circadian rhythm.

Beyond that, I’ve noticed that whether I’m sleeping outside on a boat in Croatia, going for a hike or just playing in the water, I’m more productive in the day, more tired in the evenings and happier in general.

Call Someone You Haven’t Talked To in a While

Do it.

You probably need it. They probably need it.

Facebook and texts are a bad substitute.

/End-point

Go For A Long Run

I’ve written a lot about my views on on long runs.

I don’t recommend them for the purely physical benefit – there are other, less strenuous ways to get fit – that tend to give you more bang for the buck – but the mental benefits of long runs have no equal.

I half-jokingly tell people that you can either spend $200/hour on a therapist for an hour session or you can spend that on a couple pair of shoes, lace ‘em up and go for along run.

On anything over an hour, you’ll solve more problems on a long run than you’ll even remember.

Do Something (Productively) Stupid

Every now and then I get a bit of inspiration to do something stupid. It happens pretty frequently, but when possible, I try to make it productively stupid.

For example, after watching Bobby post this

If you want something you have to work for it. The weekly totals are in: 1035 pull-ups, 1080 dips, and 880 push-ups. Didn't they tell you that I was a savage? #bodyweight #exercises

A post shared by Bobby Maximus (@bobbymaximus) on Aug 20, 2016 at 2:30pm PDT

Obviously, my first question was why not 1,000 pushups Bobby? #calledout.

Then I thought why not 1,000 everything, Joel?

1,000 pushups. 1,000 pullups. 1,000 dips.

Terrible idea, but people make terrible decisions all the time and don’t fret about it. At least this is congruent with who I want to be and pushes me out of my head and into my body.

I put down some money with my buddy Vic so we’d be sure to get it done and there’s my goal for the week.

This is not a training regimen as it is a practice (like this one) of picking a challenge and completing it no matter what.

This is what I’ve been doing. I haven’t fixed it all, there’s definitely some putzing still happening – but it’s getting a little better 🙂

Get out of your head. Get back into the world. Kill your excuses while you’re at it.

p.s. If you want to do the 3×1000 challenge, I’ll be posting on instagram with the #3×1000 tag. If you want to join in, use tags and let me know how you do.