You 2.0: How to Break Out of a Rut
1/12/20261 hr 38 min
There are times in life when the challenges we face feel insurmountable. Authors succumb to writer’s block. Athletes and artists hit a plateau. People of a certain age fall into a midlife crisis. These are all different ways of saying: I’m stuck. This week, in a favorite conversation from 2023, psychologist Adam Alter shares his research on why we all get stuck at various points in our lives, and how to break free. Then, psychologist George Bonanno answers your questions about trauma and resilience.
In this episode, you'll learn:
*Why the beginning and the end of a project is often more manageable than the midway point.
*Techniques that can help you to get through the "plateau" phase of a project or goal.
*How to break down daunting endeavors into smaller, more manageable pieces.
*Why perfectionism is so destructive to creativity, and how we can avoid this mental trap.
*Why it's difficult for us to see other people's "stuckness."
*The relationship between being prolific and being successful.
Hidden Brain is heading back out on the road in 2026! We're coming next to Philadelphia and New York City, with more tour dates across the country to be announced later this spring. More info and tickets at hiddenbrain.org/tour.
Episode illustration by Getty Images for Unsplash+.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsShankar Vedantam· Host0:00
... Hey there, Shankar here. We wanted to give our listeners a heads-up that we're hiring here at Hidden Brain. We're currently looking for a marketing and promotions assistant to help us connect our editorial work with fans across multiple platforms. You can find more information at hiddenbrain.org/jobs. We also anticipate we'll be bringing more staff on board to help us with writing, producing, and editing video scripts for YouTube and social media platforms. We don't have job descriptions for those roles posted yet, but if you have experience in video production for these platforms, we'd love to hear from you. You can send your resume and a cover letter to jobs@hiddenbrain.org. Thanks for your interest in working with us. This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. There are moments in any journey when things can feel interminable. [pensive music] You show up to work every day, do the same job, meet the same people. At home, you wash the dishes, clean the bedroom, do the laundry. On weekends, you watch the same TV shows, go for the same walks, talk to the same relatives. One day starts to look like the next. Weeks blur into each other, and then you start to wonder: What am I really doing? Where am I headed? Am I making any progress at all? [pensive music] We have different names for this phenomenon.