Why You Get Stuck (and What To Do About It)

Todd Henry [00:00:02]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the show. My name is Todd Henry. So if you do difficult things, eventually you're going to get stuck. Stuckness is just a part of doing hard things. However, simply plowing through the work is not necessarily the answer. This is often the shallow advice that we get from people. Just push through, just keep going.

Todd Henry [00:00:22]:
But creative paralysis or creative block is often the result of inattention to a few key areas. And there are a few that I encounter all the time. So today we're going to talk about the nature of stuckness. Why do we get stuck? And how do we hopefully maybe begin to gain some traction, begin to move forward without simply putting our nose to the grindstone and pushing through? Because often that is not productive and actually yields worse results. So the first reason why we get stuck is what I call definition, which means you don't really know what you're doing. Now, of course, as professionals, we know what we're doing. We know what projects we're accountable for. We know what tasks we have to do, we know what we're good at.

Todd Henry [00:01:10]:
Right? But when I say we don't know what we're doing, what I mean is that we haven't clearly defined the. The outcome that we're aiming for. We think we have because we're doing projects, but projects are not helpful in creative work. We don't do projects as creative professionals. As leaders, we solve problems. It's hard to solve a problem if you haven't defined it yet. We try to do it all the time. We jump into the work, but we don't make the effort to ensure that we actually understand the problem we're really trying to solve, not the project we're doing, but the problem we're trying to solve.

Todd Henry [00:01:44]:
As a result, we eventually hit a wall when we've done all that we know how to do. We've done everything that's in front of us, but we've lost touch with the end goal. So there are a few key sources of this lack of definition or this lack of understanding what we're doing. The first is a lack of empathy. What this means is that you don't really understand either who you're serving or what a potential solution to their problem requires. You don't really understand the needs of the people you're serving, or you've lost touch with the needs of the people you're serving. You need to spend more reflective time considering the people who are going to benefit from the problem that you're solving, the people who you are trying to serve, and what Their needs actually are. So that's the first potential source is that you've lost touch with the people you're serving through your work.

Todd Henry [00:02:34]:
The second is a lack of focus. You haven't clearly defined the problem you're trying to tackle. Instead you're resolving uncertainties, you're tackling projects, you're doing tasks, you're moving things forward, but you're not really making progress on the problem because you haven't defined the actual problem you're trying to tackle. You're attempting to resolve concepts, not problems. Spend some time getting to the root of what you're actually trying to do. Spend some time getting to the root of the definition of the actual problem that you're trying to solve. The third is simple self deception. You've convinced yourself or your organization that a problem exists that really doesn't.

Todd Henry [00:03:15]:
You're solving a non existent problem. You're doing a lot of work, but you're not really making progress because there's no progress to be made. You need to cut your losses and find a real problem to solve or redefine the work in a way that actually centers in on an actual problem, not busy work. So the solution to this lack of definition is to make certain that you're working on well defined problems and redefine those problems as often as necessary to reground yourself. This is what happens often in creative work. We learn things as we act. But if we're defining our work by project, not by problem, then we can get to the end of the project. We can do the project, complete the project, ship the project, and we've solved a completely irrelevant problem because we've failed to redefine the problem as we learned things.

Todd Henry [00:04:07]:
As we do the work, we learn things. And we have to continuously redefine the problem, otherwise we might succeed our way into failure. So that's the first area where we get stuck is definition. You don't really know what you're doing. You haven't defined the problem. The second is motivation. You don't really care, do you? Well, maybe you do care, but only because your paycheck or your reputation is on the line. However, this isn't always sufficient to keep you bringing your best work to the table.

Todd Henry [00:04:37]:
It's. It's not. You have to establish a through line that provides the needed motivation to keep working when things get tough. All problem solving, creative work, all leadership, all strategy work, everything requires us to bring something extra discretionary energy. What keeps you moving when the work gets tough? What causes you to bring what Lewis Hyde has tagged emotional labor to the work. What is it that that draws that out of you? There are a couple of sources of a lack of motivation, this place where we get stuck. The first is misplaced ego. You've made the work all about yourself, so when there's little acclaim on the line, you can't quite gear up for it.

Todd Henry [00:05:19]:
If you don't see how you're going to be recognized, you don't have the motivation to continue. What outcome are you working to achieve? One that transcends your own recognition. So is it possible that you're not motivated, you're stuck simply because you don't see what's in it for me? Right. The second is old problems, new you. You've personally moved on from the problems that used to intrigue you, but you're still plugging away at them. You're still trying to solve the problems that sparked your curiosity five years ago, but you're not really into those problems anymore. What new, fresh problem, what new definition of the work would actually excite you? Okay, and the third source is what I call the black box phenomenon. You're plugging away at the work, but you have absolutely no clue why any of your required tasks are relevant to the larger mission of the organization or to the larger purpose that you're trying to accomplish.

Todd Henry [00:06:13]:
You're all what with no why, which creates a dynamic that I wrote about in the accidental creative called dissonance. Dissonance is a gap between the why and the what of our work. Talented, ambitious people need to know not just what's expected of them, but why it matters, how it fits into the bigger picture. And this isn't just important so that we feel good about the work. It's important because talented, ambitious people have the ability to make intuitive leaps, to go places the organization didn't know to expect of them. But when they don't understand why they're doing the work, when it's all what, then it's really difficult for them to make those intuitive leaps. They're just going to do the next thing in the sequence of things they're being asked to do without questioning. And so this leads to a lack of motivation.

Todd Henry [00:06:58]:
We have to seek an alignment between what we're doing and why we're doing it. There has to be some bigger purpose behind the work that we're doing every day, some bigger problem that we're solving. And if there isn't, then it's often the case that talented, ambitious people begin to lose their motivation or they just jump from project to Project to project, seeking that spark of inspiration because they've lost touch with the why. So what's the solution to this lack of motivation? Well, you have to be brutally honest with yourself about issues of motivation, and you have to do your best to tie your work back to a deeper through line that motivates you to. Sure, you may not always care about the specific tasks. There's a lot of grunt work we have to do, and that's fine as long as that grunt work is leveling up into something that actually matters. I will endure a lot of grunt work in order to accomplish an overall purpose that really matters to me. But when I don't see the connection between the grunt work and the outcome that I care about, it can be very demotivating.

Todd Henry [00:07:56]:
How you work says a lot about you as a person, and I assume that you do care about that, about the person that you are, the person that you are portraying to the world. And so it's important that we connect that deeper motivation, the thing that really drives us, the outcome that we're aiming for, our productive passion that I wrote about in die Empty, to the tasks that we're doing every single day. What is making the grunt work worth it? When you're unmotivated, it's often because you don't see that connection between the overall outcome and the daily grunt work. So that's. The second place is motivation. The third place we get stuck is with our systems. I call this old dog, new tricks, right? So finally, your progress may simply be limited by your existing system or workflow. Things like standing meetings, organizational hierarchies tend to stick around for years after they've served their original purpose, right? But so do personal productivity habits.

Todd Henry [00:08:53]:
Where are you due for a shakeup of your systems to help you gain a little bit of creative traction? Maybe you're just in a systems rut. Here are a couple of possible sources of these systems ruts. The first is stale systems or too much pool jumping. So are you A, due for a system refresh? So maybe you need to rethink how you do your work to get you unstuck? Or B, are you in need of some stability to enable you to focus more effectively? Sometimes people jump from system to system and process to process, looking for some kind of fresh spark, but they never actually give the system or the process the time it needs to bear fruit. Systems are just conduits for your work. They're not the work itself. So if you find that your system is requiring more effort from you to maintain it than the Work output that it produces. That's a problem.

Todd Henry [00:09:43]:
Systems exist to serve you. You don't exist to serve your systems. Okay, so are you indeed of either a more predictable system or more commitment to a system? Or are you just pool jumping from system to system hoping to find some spark? Okay, so that's the first source. The second source is the wrong mix. Do you need to expand your relational network or involve new people in the project to help you jumpstart your work? We think that creativity is a solo sport. We think that leadership is a solo sport. It's not. It is a community sport.

Todd Henry [00:10:16]:
We need other people to help us produce our best work to spark new thinking, to challenge existing ruts that we might be in. So do you need to mix up the relationships that you draw upon to help you do your work? The third source is bad assumptions. Are you making assumptions that are limiting your scope of exploration? In herding tigers, I wrote about this. I called it Ghost Rules. These are invisible narratives that we invent that limit where we're willing to look for solutions. Sometimes systems can limit your vision in an unhealthy way. And questioning your operating assumptions can give you new direction for your energy. Right? So what assumptions do you need to question that could be leading to you getting stuck in the mud? So here's the solution.

Todd Henry [00:10:59]:
Do an audit of your systems. Consider where your systems might need to change. See if you can identify any energy drains. Where could you use fresh focus or relationships or a new stimulus to help you gain traction, to spark some kind of curiosity or energy? Where have things grown stale? And finally, what assumptions do you need to challenge? We are defined by the questions we ask. Those who ask the best questions often get the closest to the metal. So what new questions might you need to ask? What assumptions do you need to challenge to help you break out of your system's rut? So those are the three sources that Lack of definition, you don't really know what you're doing, lack of motivation. You really don't care, do you? And your systems? You're an old dog trying new tricks. Those are the three places.

Todd Henry [00:11:49]:
Listen, stuckness is in many cases a choice. You may not come up with the optimal solution, but if you stay diligent and commit to progress, you can always redirect to a better place. However, wallowing and stagnancy is a shortcut to misery and wasted time and energy. So refuse to be stuck. Do what it takes to break through. Hey, this was the article that I sent to my email subscribers last week. If you would like to receive articles just like this by email straight to your inbox. You can do so@bravefocusedbrilliant.com bravefocused brilliant.com that's the subscription page for the newsletter.

Todd Henry [00:12:32]:
Also, this article is available@toddhenry.com articles. If you want to read it, it's available there as well. Thanks so much for listening. My name is Todd Henry. You can find my books, my speaking, my articles, all of my work@todhenry.com until next time. May you be brave, focused and brilliant. We'll see you.