I had a chance to think about "rolls" and "ruts" recently. You "get on a roll" after experiencing a great success. We all can recognize that the absolute best time to do a difficult, boring or unpleasant task is immediately after you've had a win, you've done or accomplished something or in those rare instances, something good just fell your way...the "on a roll" refers to the natural high that follows!   It's science.  Real psychological science. A "rut" as we refer to it is just the opposite. Nothing good has been happening to you or everything you seem to do isn't working the way you hoped or even planned. So how do we stay out of the ruts and on a roll? The key is to be able to recall that feeling on demand. You need to be able to pull it up and not have to wait on happenstance. If you're not good at simply recalling the natural high in your head, you should think about writing it down, recording it or taking some photos the next time it happens to you. As an example, I am really fortunate that I have a voice recording of my son calling to tell me that he and his wife were on their way to the hospital to deliver their baby...my first grandchild. I didn't get to the phone quick enough and so he left a voice message full of excitement. How lucky for me that I wasn't able to pick up the phone when he called.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have that recording. That was three years ago and I still have it on the phone and get a great feeling each time I play it. I have others too and I listen to them.

Here's the deal. Emotions, good and bad carry over into your body language, vocal intonation and other sub-communications. You project enthusiasm, confidence, disappointment, boredom, disdain, lack of interest and a myriad of others all the time. And most of the time, you don't even know you're projecting. Those around you feel it. They react to it. You've also been on the receiving side of these projections of emotions; sometimes knowingly and sometimes not, but you react to them and they have an impact. If good projects are constantly bombarding you, there's better chance you might feel like you are on a roll. If they're negative you might be in a rut. No one seems to have a problem with being on a roll. Being in a rut - well that's another story. Being in a rut is at a minimum annoying. And just like having your car stuck in a rut, you need "tools" to get out. You can't just sit there and wait for time to pass. Ruts are hard and I'll bet you've experienced firsthand how difficult they can be to get out of. Many times you seem to just keep getting deeper and deeper. That's when you need to pull out the "fake it till you make it" routine. Pull out the photo,  the recorded call, the story you wrote, the case study about the great deal or even project you worked on - anything that makes you "feel" good. You cannot, I repeat, you cannot rely on anyone but yourself to get you out of the rut. If you do, you will only find yourself there again and sooner than you might otherwise. It's like yo-yo dieting. The fat will come back quicker and seemingly with a vengeance.

There's an ironic and seemingly unfair part of all of this. The more caring, diligent, smart and engaged you are, the more likely you are to have the deepest ruts. And if you're the type who believes that repeated failures, rejections or just living through boring routines will "build strength" or "steel you against it" because you can eventually become immune, you're in the biggest trouble. The truth is that repeated rejection beats you down subconsciously until your enthusiasm is destroyed. Let it happen for too long and you'll actually repel the people around you. You won't likely even know it because people are nice and they know how to distance themselves for self-preservation of getting stuck with you and you most likely won't even notice. You've got nowhere to go but deeper into the rut.

Just like you can get your car out of a rut, you can pull yourself out. You have to be your own personal tow truck. Record, photograph, write down and articulate your strengths to others and yourself. Purposely fit these "stories" into your day no matter how you're feeling. In other words, bring them to your conscious level for no particular reason, like me listening to the voice message I told you about. Do this and you can teach yourself to recall on command that feeling of success. Learn to pull it out when needed. And you can be on a roll more often than you are stuck in a rut.

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