S2E274 How to get Unstuck with Adam Alter
It's a Good Life
Brian Buffini
4.4 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Feeling stuck is an unavoidable part of the human condition. In this episode, bestselling author Adam Alter shares why almost everyone feels stuck in some way, how it can be a feature of progress and what to do to get unstuck and thrive when it matters most.
YOU WILL LEARN:
· The goal gradient hypothesis.
· The dynamic of perfectionism.
· The concept of simplification.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
“Anatomy of a Breakthrough,” by Adam Alter
“The Power of Habit,” by Charles Duhigg
“The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“Stuckness is inevitable.” – Adam Alter
“There is no success story … that doesn't involve multiple, repeated periods of stuckness.” – Adam Alter
“Another way of thinking of perfectionism that's not as binary, that's more continuous, is excellence or mastery.” – Adam Alter
“Excellence can be redefined across time.” – Adam Alter
“Excellence is doing the best you can with what you have in the timeframe allowed.” – Brian Buffini
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It's a Good Life, the podcast for entrepreneurs, where it's all about growing yourself and your business. |
| 0:09.6 | Here's your host, founder of America's largest business coaching company, Brian Bafini. |
| 0:16.9 | Well, the top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. I'm your host, Brian Bafini. |
| 0:21.8 | And today we have a very special guest. |
| 0:23.6 | His name is Adam Alter. |
| 0:25.3 | And Adam is New York Times bestselling author. |
| 0:28.3 | He's also a professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, which has a great reputation. |
| 0:34.7 | And I'm excited to talk about Adam's new book today, which is called the |
| 0:38.8 | anatomy of a breakthrough. It's really up our alley here today. The subtitle is how to get |
| 0:45.1 | unstuck when it matters most. Very fired up to dive into this. Very practical ways to get unstuck. |
| 0:52.1 | And if you're feeling a little stuck, Adam's got some words of |
| 0:55.1 | wisdom here today. That'll help you do that. Adam, thanks for joining us all the way from Connecticut. |
| 0:59.8 | We appreciate it. Thank you for having me, Brian. Great stuff. So, you know, I'm a big fan of |
| 1:04.8 | definitions. I think grown up in Ireland, you know, you come to the States and you say a word, |
| 1:09.5 | and everybody has an idea what it means, but they're not sure exactly what it means. And I'm a big definition guy. Yeah, it's a good |
| 1:15.4 | question. I think there are a lot of definitions of the term stuck. For me, I'm especially |
| 1:20.4 | interested in two facets of being stuck. One is the kind of stuckness that's protracted. It's not |
| 1:26.2 | like the daily frustrations that affect us |
| 1:28.2 | for a few minutes at a time. So most of my work focuses on protracted stuckness that affects people |
| 1:34.3 | for, you know, days, weeks, months, years, and in some cases, even their entire lives. And I'm also |
| 1:40.0 | not so interested in the kinds of stuckness that cannot be changed or fixed. I'm interested in |
| 1:45.0 | the kinds, and it turns out this describes the majority of them that are susceptible to our |
... |
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