What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do

Knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do is a dilemma most people find themselves in.

Sometimes you don’t always have everything figured out.

Likewise, challenges or life events can mess up your plans, leaving you feeling confused and disappointed.

If you’re at a point in your life where you’re stuck and do not know what to do, then you’ve found things at the right time.

In this blog post, we’ll share helpful tips on how to get unstuck and move forward.

Thereby helping you to make the most out of every situation and achieve success regardless.

Read through the blog post for more.

What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

The feeling of having everything figured out can be quite good.

You have a well thought out plan for how you want your life to go.

You can picture it, and this leaves a smirk on your face.

It makes everything feels smooth, and you feel more in charge of your life generally.

Coming back to real-life, things are not as you thought them to be.

Life challenges and situations deal a serious blow on you.

There you are feeling confused about where next to turn or how to move forward.

More so, you can’t bring yourself to decide what next to do.

Why do people feel this way in life most times?

Let’s find out why.

Why Do People Feel Stuck In Life?

Here are some of the reasons why most people get to a point in their lives where they do not know what to do.

It could range from different things around your job, business, or personal life.

Fixed Perspective 

Your perspective is your thought patterns/mentality, and the kind of mentality you have towards life generally has a lot to do with how life turns out for you.

A lot of people who feel stuck in their lives have a fixed mentality.

This is why they are unable to recognize what to do to get out of their challenges.

Life can throw many things at you, and it is how you react to these situations that makes a world of difference for you.

People with a fixed perspective are unable to see the silver lining in challenging situations.

Hence, when they encounter setbacks/failure in various aspects of life, they perceive it to be the end of the road and do not know what to do at that point.

On the other hand, open-minded people know how to make the best out of any negative situations they find themselves.

They believe in a world of endless possibilities and can recognize growth opportunities, even in negative situations.

Are you wondering why you feel stuck in life?

Check your perspective.

Lack of Self-awareness

People get stuck and do not know what to do at different stages in their lives due to a lack of self-awareness.

They do not know themselves or what they really want for themselves.

More so, they hardly understand their emotions/feelings and cannot tell what is right for them.

This could be partly because major decisions in their lives have been influenced or made by someone else.

As such now, at a point in their lives when they need to make tough decisions, they’re unable to decide what to do.

Thereby causing them to feel stuck in life and do not know what next to do with life.

Conformity/Lack of Uniqueness

Like the lack of self-awareness, another thing that could cause people to feel stuck in life is the lack of uniqueness.

Many people go through life feeling the need to conform to the norm or adopt the one size fits all blueprint in their lives.

They tend to do things because society deems it right to do, without giving it a proper thought if that’s really what they want.

For instance, society perceives certain career paths to be right for women and some to be specific for men and many people chose career paths based on these beliefs.

Hence, at a certain point in their career, they feel unsatisfied, unhappy, and unfulfilled.

Thereby making them feel stuck in an unfulfilling career.

Setting Unrealistic Goals

Most people also get stuck in life due to ambiguous and unrealistic goals that they set for themselves.

It is good to be ambitious and have big dreams regarding what you want to achieve in life.

However, setting goals that are impossible to achieve can only lead to frustration.

When you set unrealistic goals, what happens is that you put time, energy, and resources into plans that are doomed to fail.

As a result, making you feel like a failure and confused about what to do.

Lack of Confidence/Self-Belief

Another thing that makes people feel stuck in their lives is due to lack of self-confidence.

Most people start in their life feeling confident about their goals, dreams, and aspirations.

More so, you see them work tirelessly towards these goals.

However, in the long run, self-doubt creeps in, and they begin to doubt their ability to achieve their set goals.

More so, they doubt if they’re on the right path to achieving their goals.

Hence, they get discouraged from working on their goals and confused about which way to go.

Overall, these are some of the reasons why people feel stuck at different stages in their lives.

Having considered this, let’s discovered some steps to getting unstuck when you do not know what to do.

What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do- Tips for Getting Unstuck

Feeling stuck can be a terrible feeling, and most people do not realize how it harms them secretly.

Sadly, most people tend to settle in with this feeling and go through life feeling dissatisfied generally.

Hence, they become unwilling to take action towards getting unstuck and moving forward.

Thereby stopping them from realizing their full potential.

This doesn’t have to be you.

At your lowest point in life, there’s always something you can do to change the way things are as long as you’re willing to make the changes.

Whether you’re stuck at making a tough decision or in your business or personal life, here are some ways to get unstuck.

1. Understand That You’re Not Alone – Tip for what to do when you don’t know what to do

The first thing you should do when you do not know what to do is understand that you’re not the only one who feels that way.

Many people daily struggle with this feeling, and it’s not bad to feel this way.

What’s bad is letting yourself get stuck in that feeling.

Thereby preventing you from moving forward.

Hence, don’t feel overwhelmed by your feelings as you’re not the first person to feel that way or the only one who feels that way.

Many people before you have been in that situation, and many more will still do.

What matters is your determination not to remain that way and your willingness to make the necessary changes.

Overall, now that you’ve realized your feelings, taking the next steps towards changing the way you feel would become easier.

1. Set Smarter Goals That Align With You Want To Accomplish

One of the reasons it feels like you’re stuck and do not know what to do could be because your goals are not aligned with your desires.

Regardless of how big or mega the goals you aim to achieve are, if they do not align with what’s important to you, there’ll always be a feeling of dissatisfaction with every achievement you gain.

Either in your business or personal life, ensure that your goals are not only S.M.A.R.T but that they align with your values and priorities.

Hence, at a point where you do not know what to do, you should revisit your goals to see which of them do not align with what you want in life.

For instance, your goal is to become a business owner or an entrepreneur.

However, you’re stuck at a 9 to 5 job.

Therefore, revisit your goals to see those goals that brought you to this point where you are in your life where you feel trapped and confused.

Having done that, consider what’s important to you and set goals to achieve those things that are really important to you.

2. Beat Procrastination And Act On Your Goals

It’s okay for you to have great plans, things you aim to achieve.

However, for all your plans to come together, you need to take action.

Sadly, many people are good at setting big goals but never really take action on those goals.

They stop at the point where they dream of all the great things they could be when they achieve that goal but never really take any step towards getting there.

Even when they decide to take action, they postpone taking action till a later time.

In essence, they procrastinate a lot; thereby, making it difficult to achieve their goals.

As such leading to feelings of frustration and discontent.

The more you sit down, thinking about all the things you want to achieve without acting on them, the more frustrated and overwhelmed you feel.

Hence, stop procrastinating on your goals and take action now.

what to do when you don't know what to do at work

3. Change Your Mindset

Another thing that needs to change to get unstuck and know what to do in overwhelming situations is your mindset.

Your mindset determines how you see the situations around you.

A negative mindset will project fear on you, make the situation around you more overwhelming and make you engage in self-sabotaging behavior.

On the other hand, a positive mindset will positively help you react to the situation and make you recognize what to do to make things better for yourself.

Let’s say, for instance, you feel unhappy about your level of growth in your business.

A negative mindset will make you feel like a failure.

Thereby discouraging you from seeking ways to make things better in your business.

On the flip side, a positive mindset will make you understand that such situations are part of life.

It would also help you recognize that there are better ways of ensuring growth in your business.

Thus helping you keep an open mind to recognize and take advantage of opportunities to improve your business.

Hence, when you feel stuck and do not know what to do in an overwhelming situation, watch your mindset.

This is so that you do not engage in self-sabotaging behavior such as negative self-talk, making you dive deeper into frustration.

4. Be Willing To Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Sometimes the reason we get so confused, not knowing what next to do, is that we are afraid.

What are we afraid of?

We are afraid of taking risks, failure, trying something new, getting it wrong, being ridiculed, etc.

Hence, when we are faced with a major decision that might affect all these areas of our fears, we get stuck.

At this point, we are torn between doing what we actually want to do and what other people deem the right thing to do.

This is because the world of conformity is such a comfortable place to be.

At least you don’t have to worry about what people will say since you’re doing what is generally deemed acceptable.

Hence, because you want to play it safe, you’re torn between the right or wrong decision.

Hence you’re stuck in your comfort zone.

One thing you must understand is that you can’t always get it right.

Mistakes are bound to happen.

Hence, if you must decide on different aspects of your life, do so with an open mind.

At least whatever the outcome of your decision will be, you’ll learn valuable lessons from that experience.

Refusing to step out of your comfort zone is equivalent to refusing to move forward and make progress.

Hence, when you feel confused about something, take a decision even though it feels uncomfortable.

what to do when you don't know what job to do

5. Get Help From Positive People Who Have Been Where You Are

Whatever you might be experiencing right now, someone else has been in that shoes before now.

Given that they have been in that situation before, they have first-hand experience on what to do to get out of it.

This is why it is best to surround yourself with positive people.

Chances are that someone in your circle has already been through what you’re experiencing and might have the right information you need to solve the problem.

More so, if it’s a goal that you want to achieve and you don’t know the necessary steps to take to achieve it, find someone who has achieved that goal and get help from them.

Furthermore, when you feel confused or overwhelmed with certain situations in your life, you could easily ask them for guidance.

They could share valuable insight into your situation that could help you get unstuck and move forward.

It could be a mentor, a close friend, or a family member.

6. Live In The Moment

This is another important tip for getting over your overwhelming feelings and solve the problem of not knowing what to do.

Sometimes, you feel overwhelmed about so many things that you do not know what to do because you worry too much.

You worry about what the future will be like, and if all your plans will fall in line.

Hence, you get tensed or worked up about your life.

It’s okay to think about the future and make plans.

However, thinking about it too much can cause you excessively anxious and stop you from achieving your goals.

Rather than that, focus on the present moment.

Focus on taking small, consistent, and positive actions in the present moment that would help you achieve the bigger future you imagine.

This way, you’re taking productive steps towards achieving your goals rather than getting stuck worrying about what the future holds.

what to do when you don't know what to do with your life career

7. Give Yourself A Break When You Don’t Know What To Do

When life pressures become too much, it is easy to feel confused and stressed about everything around you.

When stressed, the cortisol level in your body increases.

As a result, it affects your mood and your ability to think clearly.

This is why if you’ve been under much stress lately, you should consider giving yourself a break.

As a business owner, you could take a break from running the business, delegate duties, and go on a short vacation.

A change of scenery and adequate rest can work wonders in situations like this.

This is because you’ll feel more relaxed and when you’re relaxed, it’s easy to focus on think properly.

More so, you’re able to gain new perspectives and fresh ideas on pending problems.

Hence, when you do not know what to do, give yourself a break and give yourself time to think carefully about the situation.

what to do when you don't know what to do anymore

8. Be Confident In Yourself

This is the last tip we have for you on what to do when you do not know what to do.

More so, the issue of self-confidence cannot be overemphasized when it comes to situations like this.

Chances are that you already know what to do to get out of the situation you find yourself in.

However, you just don’t believe in yourself enough that you’re able to make the right decision that’s best for you.

Hence, you second-guess every thought that comes to your mind.

Thereby, leading to indecisiveness and making the situation more overwhelming.

You need to believe in yourself and trust that whatever decision you take would be the best one for you.

Final Thoughts On What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do

what to do when you don't know what to do with your life

That’s it on all the tips we have for you on getting unstuck when you do not know what to do.

Sometimes all you need is a little push in the right direction and you’ll see yourself coming out of that overwhelming situation.

Here’s a little something to inspire you in your weakest moment.

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”- Maya Angelou

Apply these tips now to get unstuck from that sticky situation.

Before you leave, what are some of the moments you felt totally lost about what to do?

Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

We would love to hear from you.

Click on Buy Now For A PDF Version of This Blog Post

Buy Now
 

PayPal Acceptance Mark

 

What To Do When You Don't Know What To Do