From Stuck to Action: How to Break Through Stuck

When strategy meets tactics, momentum begins.

The Problem: When Good Strategy Leaves You Frozen

This week, I had a fascinating conversation with a client that perfectly illustrates the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.

He'd just finished working with a strategy coach and had made a breakthrough decision about his leadership training business. He had developed 15 leadership principles, but was stuck on which of his experience to focus on. After weighing two viable paths, the choice became clear:

Path A - Most people lit up when he discussed it at networking events.

Path B - A smaller group was curious, but it didn’t land with the same energy.

His strategy coach's advice was simple: "Take those 15 principles and build them into a course or blog for Path A."

And that's exactly where he got stuck.

Despite having clarity on direction, he found himself paralyzed by the shear size of the effort of transforming 15 principles into something tangible. Sound familiar?

The Solution: From 15 to 3

This is where I came in.

Strategy tells you where to go; tactics show you how to take the first step.

Fifteen principles are a fantastic long-term vision, but as a starting point? That’s a one-way trip to analysis paralysis. So I asked him to do something simple, something practical:

Pick three.

I had him think back to industry conferences he’d attended—the one-hour breakout sessions, the kind where a speaker dives into a topic, delivers value, and sends you back out into the hallway feeling a little smarter than when you walked in.

Then I asked him a key question: If you were the speaker, and you only had one hour to teach, which three principles would you want the audience to walk away with?

Not all fifteen. Not the whole universe of leadership. Just the three core principles—the ones so foundational that if people grasped only those three, they’d still be positioned for genuine improvement.

Suddenly, everything clicked for him. He didn’t have to build the whole cathedral. He just needed to lay the first stones.

A one-hour session on three key principles was something he could actually visualize, draft, and deliver. The rest of the ideas? They could wait patiently for their turn.

The Transformation

The change was immediate. His sat up straighter. His aurora got brighter. He was ready to work.

Why? Because now he had a manageable next step: create one focused, one-hour presentation on three core leadership principles.

That’s what the right tactic does—it snaps the fog of overwhelm back into clarity.

The Framework: Your 4-Step Action Blueprint

Here’s the simple, repeatable structure that turned a stuck moment into forward momentum:

1. Decide on a direction. Pick the path that gives you energy—not the one that looks good on paper.

2. Come up with a starting strategy. A sketch, not a masterpiece.

3. Choose the next step. One step. Not the tenth step. Not the perfect step. The next one.

4. Take action on that next step. Execution creates clarity. Movement creates momentum.

Your Turn

If you’re standing at the edge of your own “fifteen principles” moment—too many ideas, too much potential, and no idea where to start—this is your invitation to simplify, choose, and move.

One hour.

Three principles.

One next step.

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Ready to enter the new year with clarity, confidence, and a concrete plan?

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