When Progress Feels Wrong, You Might Be On Track

Growth can be loud on Instagram and quiet in real life. We open our new series, What Growth Really Looks Like, by naming the truth most of us avoid: progress often feels like you’re going backwards. The rhythm gets messy, confidence dips, and your brain tells you to bail. Instead of treating that as failure, we show how discomfort, doubt, and confusion are the exact markers that you’re expanding.

We walk through familiar moments—your first client, your first launch, the first time you share your work—and unpack why they feel like spinning your wheels even when you’re doing the right things. You’ll hear how unlearning precedes improvement, why the mind mistakes slowness for regression, and how to measure progress with behaviors and consistency rather than mood. We also share the quote anchoring this series—feeling lost doesn’t mean you’re off track, it means you’re expanding—and apply it directly to coaching and leadership. If you’ve ever messaged “I’m stuck,” you’ll recognize the pattern that often signals a breakthrough is near.

From there, we get practical. We talk about staying calm when coaches panic, spotting the edge of a breakthrough, and using one reliable hack: surrounding yourself with people who are willing to grow, get uncomfortable, and think differently. Community normalizes the messy middle and gives you the feedback loops to keep moving. We close by teeing up the next step in the journey: how to walk into new rooms without wasting time, money, or energy, and how to know which rooms are right for your season.

If the work feels awkward, you’re not broken—you’re building. Press play, share this with a friend who’s on the edge of something new, and leave a review with one uncomfortable action you’re taking this week.

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Transcript

New Series: Real Growth

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We're kicking off a brand new series called What Growth Really Looks Like. Because most people think growth feels great until they're actually growing. When you start growing, whether that's in your confidence, in your business, or coaching, it almost never feels good. In fact, it usually feels like you're going backwards. You start doubting yourself, wondering if you're doing something wrong. But what's actually happening when growth feels like that? Think back to a time when you were stepping into something new. Maybe it was your first client or your first launch or your first time really putting yourself out there. Remember how uncomfortable that felt. Like you were doing everything right, but it still felt like you were spinning your wheels. Now look back at that season. You can probably see it now, right? That was growth. It just didn't feel like it back then.

On The Edge Of Breakthrough

Coaches, Panic, And Perception

SPEAKER_00 0:49

That's so true. Growth always messes with your rhythm. A lot of it is you're unlearning old behaviors before you can start implementing new ones. And I want to remind you that in that season, you're not going backwards, you're going deeper. And when you start reflecting and questioning, that's growth actually doing its job. Every breakthrough I've seen and experienced comes after a stretch of confusion. Always. We see this all the time, especially with the people that we coach. We'll get a message that says, I'm stuck or I don't know what to do next. And after asking them a few questions and getting to the end of the week, they realize that they felt that way because they were on the edge of a breakthrough. And every time you're presented with that, you get an opportunity to lean in, to grow, and to become somebody different. But it's also much easier to lean out. And that's why as a coach, it's so important not only to point it out, but to see it in yourself. So that's why today's quote is feeling lost doesn't mean you're off track. It means you're expanding. So I'm curious, why do you think coaches panic when they experience this?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

It's because we've been trained to think that progress feels good. And it doesn't. Growth is awkward sometimes, and it's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So what do you tell a coach who feels like they're regressing?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

I would say don't judge your progress by how it feels. Look at how you're showing up. If you're actually still moving, you're growing.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

So how do you deal with this personally?

Community And The Right Rooms

SPEAKER_01 2:12

I remind myself that discomfort is proof that I'm stretching into something new. If it's easy, I'm probably not growing anymore.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Now I want to give you one quick hack that has always worked for me, especially in this area of wanting to grow and then being willing to lean in and actually do it. And that's when you surround yourself with other people who want to grow, who are willing to get uncomfortable, and are willing to think of things differently, just like you are. It's so much easier to stay the course. That's what community does. It normalizes that messy middle. So once you learn to trust this kind of growth, something interesting happens. You start walking into new rooms. But how do you even know if you're walking into the right rooms so you're not wasting your time, money, or your energy? That's exactly what we're talking about next. How to make sure that you step into the right rooms.