NTS.
"...Sometimes the problem begins with a sense that one is stuck in one place and not 'progressing', that one does not have the strength or will power to move on, but that, nonetheless, one must somehow advance.
"Such situations are not unique to ba'alei teshuvah. Stagnation occurs even more often with people raised in the religious tradition. But is is only to people of special religious sensitivity, like ba'alei teshuvah, that remaining spiritually static presents a problem. The origins of the problem are, as a rule not particularly deep, not the result of any great internal or external resistance or of a loss of interest. Hence the solution may lie in simply making an effort to take a single additional positive step: doing another mitzvah or doing the same one better. Here it is important, especially for ba'alei teshuva, to recall that there are many ways of taking significant steps forward, that action and involvement are not necessarily dependent on enthusiasm or even whole-hearted assent. Often, 'we shall do' must precede 'we shall hear'; though 'not yet ready,' one must sometimes undertake to do the thing nevertheless. In this, as in many spheres of the creative life, practice must often come before deliberation, mechanical action before inner readiness, work before inspiration. Then some measure of inner engagement is bound to follow. One must make the initial decision to take a 'leap' beyond the accustomed bounds of one's existence. Assuming a new 'yoke,' then, usually has a broadly refreshing effect, challengging every aread of live that has become stale"
--Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Teshuvah,pp 38-39
