One person’s rut is another person’s groove.
It’s my birthday, which means I’ve been doing that unavoidable thing: taking inventory. Where I am. How I got here. What’s changed. What hasn’t. Get older, and you’ll recognize the impulse.
My days are filled with things that matter to me. Family. Friends. Dogs. Writing. Coaching. That’s the list. It hasn’t shifted much in years, and honestly, I don’t feel the need to pad it out.
There’s not a lot of variation, either. I wake up at the same time. I go to the same places. I do the same things. Ask the staff at Starbucks—they’ll tell you my order never changes, and they’ll be right.
From the outside, that can look like a rut.
But here’s the thing: when you’re locked into what matters—when your days are built around people you love and work that gives something back—that’s not stagnation. That’s alignment.
A rut is when you’re stuck somewhere you don’t want to be. A groove is when you’re exactly where you chose to land.
So if your life feels repetitive but meaningful, steady but full, predictable but deeply yours—maybe nothing is wrong at all. Maybe you don’t need a shake-up or a reinvention. Maybe you just need to reframe the story you’re telling yourself.
Give yourself some grace.
Do what matters.
Stay in your groove.