What’s Your S(ch)tick?
This is a doodle of my s(ch)tick. On one end, I’m lit up by all the ideas! I’m energized and doing all the things! I’m juggling and loving it!
Inevitably, though, I will soon find myself on the other end of the stick. All those lovely ideas are now things that I have to keep up with and they weigh on me. I get stuck, distracted, and sometimes unmotivated.
But, eventually, there are new ideas again!! And so it goes - that is my spinning s(ch)tick!
It has been my experience that most people have some version of this vicious cycle going on:
Do a lot of things → Feel good about doing all the things we “should” do → Burn out and do nothing → Feel really bad about doing nothing → Beat ourselves up until we do things → Do a lot of things…. Repeat…
I’ve had one client doodle it out as a “square” businessman on one end of her stick and a big lazy cat on the other end. Another person doodled herself hiding in a hoodie on one end and a tornado on the other end. Both felt frustrated and exhausted from the energy-sucking job of jumping between the two.
When we are caught in our vicious cycle, the process feels bad. And, if the process feels bad, we tend to either quit working towards our goals or stop having goals because we rarely feel as good as we hoped when we get to the “finish” line.
Once you identify your vicious cycle, you can begin to interrupt it. You can build a better system, revamp a process, eliminate what doesn’t work, add more of what does, and discover that the ride can be less exhausting, overwhelming, frustrating, monotonous, etc. Of course it won’t erase challenges from your life, but it will transform how you approach those challenges.
Ways that I have interrupted this cycle for myself include:
Slower mornings
Noticing the cues in my body
Recognizing the feelings and thoughts that fuel the behaviors
Doodling with curiosity
Identifying how I want to feel
Infusing more joy in the process
Setting better boundaries
Systematizing what I want to spend less time on
Asking for help and collaborating
Has my s(ch)tick vanished? Nah. Have my clients s(ch)ticks vanished. Nope. They are transforming, though. How do I know that? Here are a few signs:
The ups and downs aren’t as dramatic.
They notice when they are caught in the vicious cycle quicker.
They have strategies for getting out of the cycle and use them.
They created a new routine that they actually look forward to.
They stop doing some of the things that aren’t serving them.
They start doing things they have wanted to do for a while.
They find or create a new tool that helps them feel more empowered and organized.
They notice that they are distracted less and motivated more.
If you are reading this, I invite you into a moment of silence. Just for a second - take a breath to get a bird’s eye view of your life and see what your version of this pattern is. What does each end of your stick look like? What makes it spin? What interruption might you try?
☆★ Creative Challenge: Doodle what the two ends of your vicious cycle stick look like. Hang it up where you can see it to begin the interruption process and hit reply to show it to me 🙂
Speaking from first-hand experience, a coach can be VERY helpful in gaining awareness of your vicious cycles and in finding ways to interrupt them. I would love to be with you on that journey and help you create new structures and processes for a more fulfilling path. Contact me for a free 30-minute Vicious Cycle session.