What Do You Guys Do To Get Yourselves Out Of A Slump?

[Zippie]

I've really started to get my shit together since late 2015, but lately I've fallen back into my old bad habits and just can't get back to living on my edge like I was. What do you guys do to get yourselves out of a slump?

[Intrepidus]

Good question. From my experience, it happens when I lose vision of the future and not reminding myself, WHY I have to stick to the right action.  Having some kind of a plan in your mind where are you moving and why are you doing something makes process easier and removes all unnecessary processes. So seeing the bigger picture is crucial to any change, or mind just makes excuse after excuse to get into old habits.

Also, bring more awareness to the habit helps a lot. Imagine you just woke up in your body right now. You know nothing about life. Look at your hands. Legs. Get into your body. Where are you now? All of the sudden body starts doing stupid things like putting bad food into a mouth, drinking, mind runs stupid thoughts and so on. Like, WTF? Isn't it strange how automatic things are?   Now decide what you want to do with this amazing flesh machine and start doing it. Take control of it. It all comes down to having a mission and always seeing if the do's of now are part of it.

 

Edited February 8, 2016 by Intrepidus

[MarkusK]

A little trick i use is to listen to some music that inspires and motivates me, then go to the mirror, look at myself and ask the question: What can i do, to make you happy today?
In the moment I ask the question, I know the right answer. Even if I feel like playing computer games and binge-watching shit, i know that isn't the right thing to do. That moment of knowing often is enough to get me started.
Of course, the brain starts coming up with all sorts of reasons why you shouldn't do it. At first i often tried to argue with myself and more or less convince myself, but that didn't work out so well, because my brain knows too well how to push my buttons.
So now I tend to take the warrior's approach and say: FUCK IT. I ignore the monkey chatter in my mind and start doing whatever it is I know I should be doing.
Even if it doesn't work 100%, it helps me a lot, especially in times, when i have really hard backslides,

[Arman]

Take radical action 

[Guest]

I will keep at those habits, even if I fail a thousand times, until eventually I don't slip off anymore. I delete/remove/sell/quit all the shit in my life that is associated with bad habits so I cannot endulge in them anymore and cannot disctract myself. I tell everyone what I change to that I feel bad when I fall back and the others think I'm weak.

I watch motivating videos if I find myself lacking motivation, of course self-help stuff. Sometimes I need to watch 5 videos in a row to get me going again. 

[Valium]

to get rid of old habits you have to establish new habits. this you can only achieve by massive action and enorm focussing!

for example, if you want to get rid of lazyness, you have to start a not-lazy habit, for example an intense hobby like a sport, going to the gym several times a week.

if you want to brake with addictive habbits like smoking, sports also may be helpfull. it is also helpfull to try to find people who share your aims, for example find a group for activities and then meet up on a regular basis!

[Dangirdas]

Set realistic goals and plans, and follow them no matter what. You simply don't want them bad enough if you fall back to your old habits. Take drastic action, and shift your mind. Some habits can be put away by going a total 160 degrees instantly, while other take time. Laziness is a choice by lack of motivation. Find your motivation, and you will never slump.

I myself get a rock hard mindset for what i want, and i work on it until i get it, even on days i don't want to or have to, i still do it.

[T110E3]

Hello all.

So in my experience this was a very hard thing to overcome.First of all what I realized in all of it is that,in most case,you will never ever feel like changing.So you sort of have to plow through it sometimes,when you don't have the motivation.It is scientifically proven that willpower is just like a muscle.You can not keep using it forever.You use it to set the habits in place and then you work it.Or also you can find some sort of external motivation that will ALWAYS remind you of what you want to do.For example if you want to lose a couple pounds what I did,and am doing is that I keep a picture of a really hot girl on my phone and I imagine she is watching me as I'm about to eat that junk that provides me 5 seconds of pleasure.It has done me good lost about 10kg,have slightly fallen of track lately,but I'm getting back on it.And if you fall off track don't beat yourself over it.The more you beat yourself up,the less confident you will fell getting back into it.

I hope this helped you in any way,best of luck.

Kind regards.

[Phocus]

Something that has helped me greatly with this is setting a goal that is EXTREMELY small.  To the point of almost being trivial.  "I will meditate for 60 seconds every day".  Once you start doing it, you will exceed the goal or spend more time than you had originally planned.  The hard part is just making the time to do it.

Another "trick" is to simply document what you do or how you spend your time .  Don't change anything, just document it.  This will help to bring awareness to what you're REALLY spending your time doing.  This will also help to keep you from deluding yourself by thinking that you've made more progress than you actually have and then use that to self-justify inaction.  A great way to do this is with a Self-Actualization Journal!  You might want to keep this a bit more high-level but it's a very powerful tool that Leo has provided.

[Zippie]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've decided to just super slowly ease myself back into doing my life purpose work. It's frustrating taking steps backwards but it seems like I just need to accept the fact that I've lost my momentum and I should focus on building it back up again from scratch. 

[Pierre]

Keep the magical words in mind:

BABY STEPS!

Thank you Leo.

[Sarah Marie]

Some things I do are:

• Watch Leo's video about backsliding (pretty sure at least 1,000 of those views on YouTube are me )
• Vision board. I keep this in my house where I see it often.
• Set reminders in my phone to do my affirmations and visualizations.
• Imagine the tough times (which some may argue isn't the best method). For example: The Super Bowl, I will imagine all the pizza there and walk myself through the party visualizing the my feelings of wanting to eat shit food and then talking myself through it. 
• Negotiate with myself as Leo suggests. I try to listen to what my body is saying and sometimes I will spend a day just feeding my muse. (Hiking, just watching documentarys, getting acupuncture, etc.)
• Whenever I'm really down I try to find a different perspective and get inspired.
• Make sure my goals are realistic. 

 

[Argue]

On February 8, 2016 at 2:12 AM, Zippie said:

I've really started to get my shit together since late 2015, but lately I've fallen back into my old bad habits and just can't get back to living on my edge like I was. What do you guys do to get yourselves out of a slump?

I look at pictures of homeless people. It reminds that if I don't get my shit together, I'll be a sad bum. 

Edited February 11, 2016 by Argue