5 Real-Life Wake-Up Calls for When You Feel Stuck in Your Own Head

You already know what you should be doing. Drink more water. Move your body. Stop spiraling. Text the therapist back. And yet, most of us are permanently stuck between “I know” and “I will.”

On The Gabby Reece Show, host Gabby Reece skips the polished interview format and takes questions directly from a room of 30 women at her live event in L.A. What unfolds is a real-time reckoning about discipline when you’re depleted, reinvention when you’re scared to blow it all up, and how to stop “circling the drain” and actually make the change.

Here are six takeaways that hit hard.

Gabby Reece Shares Tips for Women Who Feel Stuck in 2026

When motivation disappears and discipline feels impossible

Everything feels heavier when every single thought starts with “I have to.”

No wonder you’re tired. Your brain thinks you’re being chased. Reece says she stopped using that phrase entirely. “I don’t use the word ‘have to.’ Even when going to the grocery store, I use the words ‘I’m going to’ or ‘I get to,’” she explains. “That really helped lighten that load on my system because if everything’s a ‘have to,’ it’s too much.”

It sounds like something your yoga teacher would say. It is not that. “I have to go to the gym” feels like punishment. “I get to move today” feels like a choice. And when everything becomes a choice instead of a sentence? The resistance drops like 20 percent. 

When you’re fluent in therapy but nothing’s different

Reece tells a story about a longtime friend who kept going to therapy and unpacking the same issue over and over. Same story. Same frustration. Different week. “I must have been tired—my guard was down—and I was like, ‘So, you went to therapy and you talked about that thing that you’ve talked about like 700 times…when are you going to put it in play?'” 

Uncomfortable? Yes. But the actual question most of us need someone to ask us. Because if we’re honest, we all have a version of that thing.

At some point, processing turns into parking. And when you’re parked, you just get better at explaining why nothing has changed.

When you’re so off track it’s almost funny

The instinct when you’re stuck is to add more. More routines, more supplements, more habits, more accountability apps. Reece says the opposite. 

“It’s not about adding more,” she explains. “It’s about taking away the things that are keeping us from being successful…is it a relationship? Is it a belief? Is it a personal narrative? Is it the stuff in the fridge?” That shift alone changes the energy. Instead of asking, What do I need to become? you start asking, What is quietly sabotaging me right now? 

Before you download another habit tracker, pause.

• Is it the situationship you keep “processing” but won’t leave?
• Is it the belief that you’re just “bad at consistency”?
• Is it the late-night scroll that wrecks your mornings?
• Is it the environment that makes the old habit easier than the new one?

You probably don’t need a whole glow-up plan. You might just need to stop tolerating the one thing that keeps resetting you back to square one. Start there.

When you’re ready for a pivot but not a meltdown

You don’t have to quit your job, leave your partner, and move to Portugal on the same Tuesday. “If you’re doing this one thing in your job and it’s a career, it’s like a train that’s moving, then get another train going,” Reece says. “When that other train starts to get momentum, and the momentum catches up, when the door opens, get off, get on the other train.” 

Basically, don’t leap until there’s somewhere solid to land. Start the next thing on the side. Let it cook for a minute. Make sure you actually like it before you blow up your LinkedIn bio.

When your FYP is giving you 47 answers to the same question

Everyone online has a protocol. A stack. A non-negotiable morning routine that supposedly changed their entire life. One creator says cut carbs. Another says eat more. Someone else is cold plunging at 5 a.m. while journaling about dopamine. It’s a lot. Reece says she doesn’t go to the internet looking for answers. She goes “looking for either inspiration or an idea.”

That distinction matters. The feed is great for exposure, but it’s terrible for authority. If something feels useful right now, save it. If it doesn’t, keep scrolling. Not every viral routine is meant for you…and that’s ok. Your algorithm isn’t your life coach. It’s just showing you whatever keeps you hooked. 

For more insights, tune into The Gabby Reece Show, streaming now.

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