A big part of getting stuck in a rut (with any aspect of your life), is when you accidentally normalise stuff that isn’t normal. Everyone does this from time to time, we are all just sort of blind to it.

The only way to get out of it is to unormalise the stuff that you accidentally normalised.

The challenge though is that the corrective action will feel extreme to you (not normal!), even though it’s probably pretty normal.

Humans can normalise anything, so from time to time it’s good to make some extreme decisions that are directionally positive for you, ie violate your bad habits, and make some sacrifices to hit on some good ones.

Over 30-40 years these tiny nudges massively compound to your advantage. Most people just flutter along through life stochastically normalising weird and unhelpful stuff.