This Might Be Why You’re Feeling Stuck
We all hit a wall sometimes. The momentum slows. The spark fades. The work that used to energize you is leaving you flat. Or your business growth has stalled, and what used to work isn’t working anymore.
So we look for the usual culprits: burnout, lack of motivation, unclear priorities, your underperforming team. And while those might be part of the story, they’re often not the root cause.
What if you’re not actually stuck because of a lack of motivation, focus, discipline, or effort?
What if you’re stuck because you’ve been coasting—executing well, staying busy, but avoiding the harder questions about what’s next? Or because you’re overthinking—spinning in strategy, second-guessing every move, waiting for a perfect solution before making any?
Or maybe the stuckness comes from a kind of strategic misalignment. Maybe the business, role, or path you’ve built no longer reflects the kind of leader you want to be, the impact you want to have, or the direction your business needs to go.
We tend to treat stuckness as a tactical problem—something that can be solved with a better plan, a productivity boost, or an injection of cash. But more often, it’s a signal that something foundational needs to shift.
It’s not about working harder. It’s about working on the right things, in the right way, for the right reasons.
A time when I felt stuck
My last corporate job was as a Senior Vice President at a global ad agency, leading more than 100 people through a major operational transformation. I was responsible for integrating the creative service departments from three agencies into a single standalone business unit, which included building and equipping a new 10,000-square-foot space, overhauling systems, developing new workflows, and figuring out how we would support the agency teams—all while continuing the day-to-day work at hand.
It was a big job. One I was good at. I liked the team. I was proud of the work.
But I was miserable.
Because at the end of the day, everything we did was in service of selling more cars. That misalignment gnawed at me. I wanted to do work that felt more meaningful.
So I walked away. I left the agency, moved from Michigan to Colorado (where we knew exactly one person), and started Similar Blue (now Yours, Truly) with one non-paying client. It was the most terrifying and clarifying decision I’ve ever made.
The research backs this up
Psychologist and leadership expert Dr. Susan David, known for her work on emotional agility, puts it this way in her TEDTalk:
“Discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful life.”
In other words, that feeling of stuckness isn’t a failure—it’s an invitation. A sign that the outer structure of your work may be out of sync with your inner clarity, ambition, or growth.
Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett explains in How Emotions Are Made that our brains are constantly making predictions based on past experiences. If you’ve been operating on a model that once worked but no longer fits, your brain will resist moving forward—because it no longer knows what “forward” looks like.
This is why stuckness so often shows up during periods of growth. You’ve outpaced your old story, but haven’t yet written the new one.
A new kind of clarity
If you're leading a business, a team, or your own next move, you don’t need another five-step plan. You need space to ask better questions. Like:
Where am I holding on to something that used to work—but no longer serves me?
What am I optimizing for right now—and is it still the right goal?
What kind of leader or contributor do I want to be in this next chapter?
Clarity isn’t about certainty. It’s about alignment—between who you are, what you want, and how you’re showing up.
The takeaway
Stuck doesn’t mean broken. It means you’re being called to step back, zoom out, and make more intentional decisions about what comes next.
Reflection Prompt
Where do you feel the most friction right now in your work? What part of your day, your role, or your business feels heavier than it should?
Mini Exercise: Energy Audit
Write down the 3 most energizing moments you’ve had in your work over the past 6 months.
Then write down 3 moments that drained you.
What patterns do you see? What do those patterns tell you about what’s ready to shift?
Feeling stuck in your work, leadership, or next chapter? Sometimes all it takes is a clearer lens and a good thought partner. If you're ready to get unstuck, I’d love to help. Let’s talk!
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