Are you stuck in a vicious cycle and don’t know what to do about it? 

If you’re feeling like you’re caught in an unending loop of stress, anxiety, and negativity, it’s time to take a step back and assess your situation.

Recognize the signs

Sign 1. You make many cyclic statements 

• I cannot go to gym since I am too busy at work 

( Hidden cyclic loop : You are not working efficiently, since your health or physical fitness does not allow you to do that, so you need to work more hours, hence not able to spare time)

• I cannot quit smoking since it relieves me of pressure

( It relieves you temporarily, but you waste many hours in the day smoking, the pressure to complete work is not going to get better with that) 

• I cannot follow diet and workout schedule because I am not fit enough to do that

( Completely cyclic statement – you will never get fit enough if you do not do the former) 

Sign 2. Your dreams are not making any progress with time

Your dreams are stuck at square one, and only years pass, but there seems to be no progress in your dreams. 

For example, you had a dream to write your book since last 5 years, but you have only written 20 pages that you wrote 3 years back.

Sign 3. You frequently break your promises and commitments

Your promises to your loved ones are frequently breaking, and worse still, your commitments to yourself break year after year. 

You wanted to get in good shape, but are not able to do that.

You promised your wife a dream Maldives vacation, but not able to spare time year after year.

Sign 4. You frequently feel frustrated, exhausted, discouraged

You feel demotivated, negative feelings fill you up, you get sucked into a loop of bad habits that never seem to leave you.

To relieve yourself, you resort to smoking, drinking.

To defend yourself, you frequently fight with people which further fills you with negativity. 

It is a very common pattern of bad habits to invite more of their kinds for the feat they are having at your cost.

Sign 5. There is a pattern to your excuses

There is a very noticeable patterns of excuses when you are stuck in a vicious cycle in life. 

I cannot ( things I can control) because ( things I cannot control) 

The Pattern of Excuses

for example,

• I cannot hit the gym, since I am not fit enough to do that.
• I cannot take out time with my wife, because my work keeps me too busy.
• I cannot quit smoking, because of the work pressure, since smoking helps me relieve that.

Subconsciously, you know that you can only control the controllable, and not the uncontrollable.

So when you blame the uncontrollable, it puts you at ease. You are not at fault now. Your environment is. 

Own up the Pattern of vicious cycle – you control it only when you own it

Owning up to your condition is the first step you need to do, if you wish to reverse the vicious loops in your life.  

Own up that you are the reason for your being fat, your being unhealthy, your being angry, your being stuck in the career where you are.

Once you own up that you created your conditions, it follows that you can reverse them too. 

“You must take responsibility for removing I can’t from your vocabulary.”

Jack Canfield, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

So what do you think? Does your life also show some of these signs?

Which of these signs are you affected by ? Mention in comments.

And if you now know that you are stuck, how should you break this vicious cycle ?

Read in the next part of this series – How to reverse the vicious cycle in your life ?