I’ve always been the kind of person who gets easily trapped in overthinking. I would stare at the ceiling for hours, telling myself, “I’ll wait until I figure it out before I move.” I watched everyone around me walk forward, one by one, while the anxiety inside me kept building.
Then, by chance, I came across an old interview with director Steven Spielberg — and heard how he got himself moving again during his lowest days. I also read about what actor Matthew McConaughey did during the years when he didn’t want to act anymore. That was when I finally understood: feeling stuck in life isn’t your fault. It’s not bad luck. It’s just a temporary state — and it can be broken.
Almost every method I’ve used since then came from these two famous people’s experiences, adjusted to fit my own life. Today, I want to share them openly with you — if you’re stuck in the same place I used to be.
Stop waiting for a “clear answer”
I used to make the same mistake over and over: I refused to take a single step until I had everything completely figured out. If I didn’t know what I wanted, I wouldn’t move. If I hadn’t found my “true passion,” I would just keep waiting.
Then I learned about Spielberg’s early years. The same director who made Schindler’s List went through his own dark period when he was young — one of his movies bombed at the box office, critics tore him apart, and he even started doubting whether he belonged in the business at all. But in an interview, he said one thing that woke me up: “I didn’t know where I wanted to go. But I knew I had to stand up first.”
He didn’t wait for inspiration to strike. He took a project he didn’t even like that much and pushed himself to make it anyway. That movie wasn’t anything special. But after he finished it, his momentum came back.
I started doing what he did. I stopped forcing myself to figure out my “life direction” first. Instead, I did one small thing. I cleaned out a drawer. I walked outside for ten minutes. I sent an old friend a message. The moment you start moving, the fear begins to fade. Feeling stuck is usually just the fear of making the wrong choice. But Spielberg taught me this:
Taking the first step matters more than stepping in the right direction. As soon as you move, the stuckness starts to break apart.
Break the big fog into small pieces
Another method that helped me get out of that rut — I learned it from Matthew McConaughey. Before, whenever I started thinking about big questions like “What am I supposed to do with my entire life?” — my brain would just freeze. The question was too big. Too blurry. I had no idea where to even start. The more I thought, the more frustrated I got. The more frustrated I got, the less I wanted to move.
Then I read an interview with Matthew McConaughey. He said there was a period when he completely lost interest in acting. Not because he couldn’t get roles. Because he felt empty inside. But he didn’t force himself to answer the ultimate question — “Do I still want to be an actor or not?” Instead, every day he asked himself just three small questions: What can I do today to feel a little better? Who can I reach out to today for a conversation? Can I at least make my bed today?
Those small things got him through the foggiest days of his life.
So I started doing the same. Forget next year. Forget tomorrow. Just for today — what’s one small thing I can do to make today a little better than yesterday? Read a few pages of a book. Walk around the block. Call my parents. Just one thing. When I shifted my focus from “my entire life” to “this one small thing today,” that suffocating pressure slowly began to lift. I didn’t need some grand direction. I just needed to know the one thing I was supposed to do today. Finish that one thing. Then do the next thing. A path isn’t discovered by thinking about it – it’s created by walking it.
To be honest, I feel lucky to have stumbled upon how these two people navigated their low points. No complicated theories. No cheesy motivational slogans. Just simple, grounded, and truly useful methods.
Please remember this: feeling stuck in life is not the end. It’s just a temporary state — and it can be broken. Stick with it slowly, day by day, and you will discover something: the wall of stuckness isn’t shattered in one big crash. It gets taken down, piece by piece, one small thing at a time.
