If you’re feeling stuck, bored, and ready for a change, you’ve come to the right place.
I’m a rutbuster, and have been most of my life – ever since I first went into business for myself as a 4-year-old in Gary, Indiana.
Rutbusting is the ability to break out of the habits and thought patterns that keep us from our true talents and passions. Most people aren’t able to do this very effectively.
The first time I came across the term “rutbuster” was in a business book by Auren Uris called The Executive Breakthrough. This was the late 1960s and, to my surprise, he was writing about me. I had recently been named the National Advertising Federation’s “Advertising Woman of the Year.” Mr. Uris included a chapter in his book on me – labeling me a “Rutbuster.”
At first, I didn’t like the sound of it. But in time, I came to understand and appreciate it.
The main reason people fail to achieve what they want is they get stuck. Stuck in their routines, stuck in their thought patterns, stuck in their social circles, stuck in their doubts, stuck in their fear of the unknown. Most people don’t realize how easy it is to change this – to replace negative habits with positive ones, and to become unstuck. Many people don’t even recognize the ruts that prevent them, over and over, from reaching their potentials.
These are what I call the Eight Secrets of Rutbusting:
1. Savor the Adventure of Being Different.
It was my grandmother Sophie who taught me this. Sophie was the first person to convince me “You can do it” – the most important four words I heard as a girl.
Sophie had “done it” herself, becoming a successful real estate broker at a time when women were expected to stay home and cook and clean. Although she stood just four feet eleven, I always thought Sophie was a giant in other ways.
Sophie thought there was too much “me-too-ism” in the world and she wanted me to be different, to take risks, to recognize opportunities. Even when circumstances were difficult for us, as they often were during the Depression, Sophie showed me – largely through her example – to look at life as an adventure. I haven’t stopped doing that.
