Do You Feel Stuck?

There’s nothing worse than the feeling of being stuck. You know what I mean?

You feel like there’s some big idea you want to go after, but you don’t know where to start. It seems so much easier to just give up and do the same thing every day.

Or you get a big idea and the self-doubt kicks in and you start to downgrade.  At first you say, “I can start my own business and be a successful entrepreneur!”  Then you downgrade to, “well, maybe I need more education or a different certificate or something.”  That turns into “I’ll just start investigating what that takes and maybe do it on the side while I keep my job.”

If you keep going with the insecurity, you downgrade a little farther to “I’ll just do it after I retire.”

Finally, you end up at “Oh the heck with it. I’m just going to stay where I am.”

This happens a lot. But that just leaves you feeling more stuck, right? Because you haven’t done anything toward what you really want to do.

The thing you need to do when you feel stuck is not make your dream smaller and more manageable but make it bigger.

Think bigger in those moments that your tendency is to shrink back.

When my husband and I started our first business together, we had this great idea to buy a like a little portable trailer with a wood-fired pizza oven on it that we could pull behind my car.  We thought we’d just take it to a few festivals, maybe cater weddings.

We were so excited, but we immediately started to downgrade.  We decided I’d keep my full-time job. Then we thought it was wiser if he kept his full-time job, too.

We struggled to raise the money to buy the trailer.  We didn’t have time to book events.  We had trouble making it to trainings on how to work an oven like that.  We kept downgrading and nothing worked.

At that point, it seemed easier to just stay stuck.

Then one day, when we’d just about given up, my husband came up with a great idea. An audacious idea, for sure, but a great one.  What if we franchise pizza trailers?

What? Instead of he and I doing this as a side hustle, what if we start a franchise?  It scared the bejeesuz out of both of us. But this bigger thought also energized us.

All of a sudden, we started coming up with ways to do it. We found a manufacturer to build a custom trailer. We found a franchise consultant. We found people who wanted to help us and invest in us.

We got capital and everything came together in a way that we couldn’t have imagined while we were continuing to think smaller.  Because of my husband’s audacious idea, everything fell into place.

If you find yourself stuck and “downgrading,” if you think you can’t figure out how to think bigger, find a cheerleader. My husband and I had each other. When one of us would start to think small again, the other one would come in and think big.

Get any sort of support you can from this cheerleader, because that will really keep you focused.

The second thing to do is figure out why you want what you want.  If you don’t know why you want it, then you’ll settle for anything and you’ll stay in that stuck and unfulfilled feeling.

Finally, remember that you never give up on your dream. Keep refining it.  Keep expanding it!

Get a cheerleader to support you. Keep asking yourself why you want what you want.  Then keep your dream front and center and never downgrade it.

I’d be happy to help you think bigger.  If you’re ready to stop feeling stuck. If you’re ready to move forward and quit downgrading and thinking small, then I invite you to DM me “I’m ready.” We can set up a call to see how we can work together.

Also, you can go to my website and sign up for my e-newsletter and that will get you your free Business Builder Blueprint, which will help you start thinking bigger. While you’re there, you can set up a Business Builder Action Plan consultation with me and let’s see if there’s a way that we can work together, and I can help you think bigger.

About the author

Dr. Judy Morley has been described as a “human potential specialist.” Her years of experience in different arenas varies from being an advertising executive to a college professor to an executive to an entrepreneur and franchise owner.  Each of these positions has given her great insight into helping people find their authentic style of leadership.