Ok, Reader, let's roll.

"Stuck," in my experience, is a word that creates defensiveness in many of us. We're busy AF, drowning in effort, and plodding forward the best we can. It may be maximal friction with not much momentum, but it doesn't feel like stuck. Nobody really wants to say "I'm stuck." Even worse, nobody wants to hear "you're stuck."

The (or my) ego, being something of a permanent toddler, activates its inherent oppositional defiance disorder. It reminds me of all those times my wife used to ask, "do you think you might be an alcoholic?"

The psychological ramparts go up with a silent "what the actual eff!" battle cry. None of us really wants to admit "I'm stuck."

Until we do. That's when the power of shifting changes the dynamics.

What most accomplished professionals experience isn't actually being stuck--it's being on the plateau. The difference isn't semantic. When you're stuck, you're not moving. When you're on the plateau, you're accumulating potential energy that simply hasn't converted to kinetic yet.

I see this pattern with leaders advancing their careers, entrepreneurs pivoting their businesses, creatives developing new projects. They're doing the work--making the calls, developing the skills, building the relationships, testing the approaches. But because they don't see immediate results, they interpret the plateau as failure.

What they can't see is how much potential energy they've accumulated in their system. Each experiment, conversation, near-miss, and small victory adds experiential capacity to the system.

Then comes a small shift in perspective--often just recognizing the plateau for what it is--and within time, everything changes. The potential becomes kinetic. There is fresh traction.

But it's not the final weeks that made the difference. It's the months of groundwork plus the shift in perspective. The potential had been building all along.

Well lookee here, we've both made it to issue #2 Shift Happens. Small win for our collective staying power.... (Did someone forward this to you and you're keen for more? Subscribe ​here​.)

Cue The Pearl Clutching & Gasps

(The productivity-porn set from the self-help industrial complex may revoke my membership card.)

Beyond re-quoting that "1% better every day = 37% in a year" line, what have most of us actually gotten from "Atomic Habits"?

That's the sugar high insight that creates a sparkle of hope in the fog of everyday confusion. It's the kind of tidy math that makes for great social media posts but rarely accounts for the messiness of actual growth.

The most important idea that gets most overlooked is the "plateau of latent potential." We think we're just spinning, spinning, spinning, but nothing happens.

I've watched this with clients. I've lived it myself. For months, sometimes years, we put in the work and wonder if we're just fooling ourselves. We look for early indicators, quick wins, signs that we're on the right track.

But what, in fact, is happening is we're making consistent investments in potential energy.

There is a moment when the switch on that potential energy is turned on and it becomes kinetic energy.

That is when we level up. I've seen this over and over with endurance athletes, musicians, businesses, recovering alcoholics, leaders, job interviewers, whatever.

If leveling up were easy, Reader, we'd never really be able to contextualize the experience, and thus we'd never fully understand what we are capable of.

If it comes too easily, it doesn't become embodied. And, belief resides in the body. It flows through the marrow. It is metabolized in the mitochondria.

The Body Knows Before the Mind

The most profound shifts happen when the change becomes embodied. That's why so many "mindset tricks" fail to create lasting momentum. They're cognitive exercises divorced from physical reality.

I see this with people moving through transitions all the time. They've spent months or years building potential energy in their work, sport, relationships, life.

And despite all that investment, they still feel stuck. They're grinding in familiar patterns. The executive who can't delegate. The entrepreneur who can't trust their team. The creative professional who keeps second-guessing their instincts. The athlete who can't stop sabotaging their game.

Then something happens. A moment. A conversation. A small win that serves as a catalyst. The potential energy converts to kinetic. Suddenly, they're moving with a momentum that surprises even themselves.

When you truly level up, your body knows it before your mind can articulate it. Your posture changes. Your breathing shifts. The way you move through space becomes different in subtle but meaningful ways.

This is why, despite all our sophisticated feedback systems and tracking metrics, the most reliable indicator of meaningful change is often the most basic: how does it feel in your body when you're doing the work?

When I help people through transitions, I'm looking for those subtle shifts in energy and presence that signal the potential is about to become kinetic. The slight straightening of the spine. The deeper breath. The more grounded quality in the voiceThese aren't soft metrics--they're the functional indicators of change happening at the structural level.

So, Where Does This Leave You?

If you're in that plateau phase right now--putting in the work but not seeing the results--recognize that you may be accumulating potential energy that's about to convert.

The question isn't whether you're making progress. The question is: will you stay in the game long enough for the phase shift to occur?

One power resource with three questions for you:

One reason many of us bail out before the magic happens is because we're uncomfortable with the uncertainty. We want to lose today's unwanted pounds on last week's salad. That discomfort is an opportunity to build resilience. Resilience is strengthened by replacing judging (eg, "This sucks!") with asking. Check out this Stacey Abrams TED Talk on 3 Questions:

1. What do I want?
2. Why do I want it?
3. How am I gonna make it happen?

Shift happens,

Bryan & Murray (My fat, old, rude, orange tyrant… He's a 🐈.)