Buddha once said, “The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There’s only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment.” I think what he means is that you can’t change the past. It’s already happened. And you can’t decide the future because it’s not here yet. And that feeling of being stuck, at least in my experience and the experience of others, is almost always about wanting to revisit the past or step into a future that hasn’t happened yet.
This moment, the one you’re stuck in right this very second, is the only place from which you can truly act. You can’t go back in time and pick a different career path. You can’t leap into the future and make sure everything turns out the way you want, right? But sometimes “stuck” isn’t a lack of progress. It may be your inner voice quietly refusing to move you forward until you fully acknowledge where you already are. It might also be called procrastination, self-sabotage, or even resistance. But often it’s a deeper part of you saying, “I won’t let you skip this chapter just because it’s uncomfortable.”
It can sometimes feel like your system is pumping the brakes until you honor the life you’re actually living, not the one you’re trying to sprint forward to. You’re not always stuck because you’re failing. Sometimes you’re “stuck” because you haven’t fully occupied the moment you’re already in. Many people find that focusing on the present moment helps them feel grounded. Look, i get it, we have a million things on our plates. We’re trying to juggle our home, our kids, and our relationships. Maybe we aren’t behind. Maybe we’re right on time and it’s our old definition of stuck that’s overdue for a rebrand.