“I’m stuck” is the newest phrase tossed around in the spiritual community and elsewhere. I say tossed around because, for the most part, it’s no longer being used to mean that the person has come to a point that they can’t get out of or that they need help because they are caught and unable to extricate themselves. It’s now being used to indicate anything from “I’m not getting my own way” to “Things aren’t going fast enough” to “I don’t want to do this so I’m not going to.”
Being in a process which takes a long amount of time, requires you to go through a difficult activity, or to make an uncomfortable change doesn’t mean that you’re stuck. Doing anything and everything you can to avoid these realities more closely resembles the real definition of stuck. Most people who are truly stuck in a situation don’t recognize they are stuck and so don’t look for a remedy. Those who are stuck and recognize it usually are willing to do what it takes to get unstuck and so move quickly to a solution and immediately start making progress.
“I’m stuck” is now being used, more often than not, as a means of avoidance, as an attempt to get out of responsibility for a situation, or some way to change the facts so that we can get a quick fix or easy remedy rather than slog through life like the rest of everyone else. The easiest way to get through this kind of stuckness is to stop wasting energy worrying about the stuckness and spend time acknowledging the steps we know we have to take to move the situation, most of which are within us, then start doing them. Because the only way out of a “stuck” situation is through it, one step at a time.
