The only way to know if your groove is a rut is to observe it objectively from the outside. All too often, what appears as a groove to you, is actually a rut where you are just showing up to do the same thing today that you did yesterday. It is very easy to become inured to the reality of your circumstances and simply go on day to day experiencing no real progress toward any goals. Generally, this is because the investment of energy and resources to ride the tide is far less than the energy and resources needed to actually steer a course (or course correction).
If the tide is taking you exactly where you want to be, then the groove is a groove. When the tide is not taking you in the direction you want to go, you are then challenged to start looking more carefully at your groove to figure out how to change it.
As a business owner, a manager or as anyone who aspires, as soon as you feel that there is anything close to complacency or “this is the way it is” in the perspective of your co-workers or your Customers or yourself, it’s time to dig out. Those are tell tale symptoms of rut acceptance.
“A rut is a grave with the ends kicked out.” – Radio Host and Author Earl Nightingale
