Getting Past Stuck: How to negotiate the obstacles to progress

The Entrepreneurial MD's December Newsletter went out today, with my musings and ideas for how to handle those times when we get stuck or we procrastinate endlessly, even when we are armed with our best intentions and handy tools such as our vision, our lists, or our action plans.

Here's the full article on how to negotiate these obstacles to your progress.

Some points from the article --

Do these causes of "stuckness" seem familiar?

- Fear of failure
- Lack of assurance of the outcome
- Overwhelm
- Timidity
- Uncertainty as to what to do next

And are these some of your ways of dealing with feeling blocked (even as you try to kid yourself you are busy and "productive")?

- Focusing on "feel good" activities -- answering emails (the ones with the easy replies), making the non-challenging phone calls, checking stuff out on the web, reading yet another "how-to" book, spending money on help from one more authority who will tell me what to do, making to-do lists
- Avoiding the examination of what is really going on
- Struggling all alone, without reaching out to known sources of truth-telling, inspiration and reality-checking
- Feeling like nothing useful is getting accomplished!

If so, there are 4 questions to ask yourself:

1. What one single change implemented in your business or your life (wherever you are stuck) would cause an immediate positive result?

2. Do you know exactly what that is?

3. If so, how much of your daily effort is directed at making that change?

4. If you were to change that one thing, how likely is it you will get different results?

If you'd like to share your thoughts about getting stuck or unstuck with me on the blog, please do so in the Comments section below. And I love and appreciate hearing from those of you who prefer to drop me a private note via my Contact page.