There was a time when I swore I was stuck. No matter how much I wanted to change, I kept finding myself in the same cycles - starting strong, slipping back, feeling like a failure, and then doing it all over again. Whether it was drinking, negative self-talk, self-sabotage, or even something as simple as making excuses for why I couldn’t do the things I said I wanted to do… I felt trapped in a version of myself that I didn’t want to be anymore.
I convinced myself that maybe this was just who I was. That maybe some people were meant to break free, to grow, to thrive… and maybe I just wasn’t one of them.
But here’s what I finally realized: I wasn’t stuck. I was just repeating patterns that felt familiar.
Because here’s the thing - our brains love familiarity, even when it’s not good for us. If we’ve spent years running to alcohol, food, relationships, distractions, or self-doubt to cope, it makes sense that we keep defaulting to those things. They’ve become our automatic responses, our normal. But just because something is familiar doesn’t mean it’s permanent.
You can rewrite the script.
I learned that breaking cycles wasn’t about willpower or forcing myself to be a completely different person overnight. It was about noticing my patterns and choosing to respond differently.
Instead of reaching for a drink when I felt stressed, I sat with the discomfort and asked myself what I actually needed.
Instead of spiraling into self-criticism, I paused and tried to speak to myself with the same kindness I’d offer a friend.
Instead of saying, I’ll start Monday, I decided to start right now.
And over time, those small choices started to add up. The more I interrupted my old patterns, the weaker they became. The more I chose a new response, the more natural it felt.
If you feel stuck, I promise you - you’re not. You’re just running a script that no longer serves you. And the good news? You’re the author. You get to decide how this story goes from here.
So start with one moment. One choice. One small decision to respond differently than you have before. And then do it again.
Because every time you rewrite the script, you’re breaking free. And before you know it, you won’t just feel unstuck - you’ll realize you were never actually trapped. You were just waiting to take the pen back and make the changes you needed to.
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