Bite-Sized Teaching Series: The More Stuck You Feel, The Closer You Are To Freedom

The Art of Accomplishment

Brett Kistler

Management, Mental Health, Personal Development, Education, Self-improvement, Business, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 269 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You're about to discover why that promotion you won't ask for, that business you won't start, and that conversation you keep avoiding all come from the same illusion. → Turn your fear back into excitement (free mini-course): https://www.artofaccomplishment.com/resources/procrastination Joe reveals the counterintuitive reason you feel 'stuck' and can't seem to move forward on your goals. It has nothing to do with a lack of options and everything to do with a fear of consequences. These insights come from Joe's three decades of working intimately with some of the world's most productive people, from billionaires to Fortune 500 CEOs, and uncovering the emotional patterns that drive procrastination.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So here's the cure to being stuck that you definitely do not want to hear.
0:03.0	You're not stuck.
0:06.0	Stuck is a feeling, it's not an actuality.
0:09.0	And when you realize what creates that, and when you realize that you're actually not stuck,
0:13.0	everything changes, and it changes really quickly.
0:16.0	So here's how the whole thing works.
0:19.0	You think about something that you want. You think about, say, I want a promotion. And then you think about a way to get it. I'm going to ask my boss for a promotion. And then you think maybe another way to do it. Oh, I'm going to just work really, really hard. And then you think maybe another way to get it, I am going to ask my boss's boss for a promotion.
0:41.9	And then you look at those three options and you think, ooh, I don't like the consequences of any of these. And that's when you feel stuck. You feel stuck because you do not like the
0:48.8	potential consequences of the ways that you see to get unstuck. So what does that mean specifically? Let's say I asked my boss and my boss is going to think that I'm upity and then I'm going to try to do a great job but I realize I've been doing a great job for two years and it hasn't got me a promotion. I don't want to be here for three more years doing a great job and not get a promotion. And then I think about talking to my boss's boss, and then I'm scared that they'll say,
1:13.1	oh, you went over this boss's head, or my boss is going to get mad of me for going over
1:16.6	their head.
1:17.6	I don't like any of the options.
1:19.1	I don't like the potential consequences, and so I must be stuck.
1:25.6	So there are many issues with being scared of the consequences. One of the issues with being scared
1:30.0	of the consequences is that you're thinking that there's only one way to do it. Right. So think about it
1:35.7	this way. I'm going to ask my boss for a promotion. Well, I could do that by saying, I want a
1:42.1	promotion. I could do that by saying, if you don't give me a promotion, I'm going to quit. I could do that by saying, I want a promotion. I could do that by saying, if you don't give me a promotion,
1:46.5	I'm going to quit.
1:47.3	I could do that by saying, what would it take for me
1:50.3	to get a promotion?
1:51.6	I could say it as, what would make you extremely excited
1:55.3	to give me a promotion?
	...

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