Why You're Not Making Progress - Even When You're Doing Everything Right

You’re putting in the work, following the plan, and doing everything right - so why aren't you seeing results?

In this episode, we dive into the frustrating reality of feeling stuck despite your best efforts. Whether it’s in fitness, career, or relationships, sometimes progress isn’t about working harder - it’s about working differently.

What We Cover:

• Why progress often stalls even when you're consistent

• How to recognize when you’re stuck in busy work vs. real progress

• The role of discomfort in growth - and why it's a good sign

• How shifting your perspective on success can unlock breakthroughs

• Practical steps to assess what's actually moving the needle in your life

• A challenge to rethink your approach to areas where you feel stuck

If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might need to hear it. And if you've had a breakthrough moment, DM me on Instagram (@cameoelysebraun) I'd love to hear about it!

Chapters

• 0:00 Achieving Success by Working Differently
• 8:48 Embracing Change for Productive Results
• 13:33 Sharing Stories of Growth and Inspiration

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show. I'm your host, cameo, and today we're talking about the pretty common feeling of I'm doing everything right, but why is it still not working? But before we get into all of that, I just want to take a second really quick here to thank you for being here, thank you for investing in yourself and please, if you haven't yet, like and follow or subscribe to the channel or from whatever podcast platform you're listening on. It really helps us and it is greatly appreciated. Now let's get into it, and I want to say that this isn't meant to be hard on you, but it is a little bit of tough love, because sometimes we need it. I know I have needed tough love in my life and I didn't like it at the time, but I'm grateful for it in hindsight, because it either opened my eyes to something I didn't see or it pissed me off enough to put my ass in action. And so my goal here is not to piss you off, but it is to put you in action. And so my goal here is not to piss you off, but it is to put you in action. So here's the thing you are doing everything right, you're showing up, you're putting in the work, you're following the plan but, for whatever reason, you still feel stuck. No progress, no results, just frustration. Sound familiar. If you've ever hit that wall and I would bet that we all have at some point this episode is for you.

Speaker 1: 2:00

Maybe you've been consistent at the gym. It is now February of 2025, and you've been a month into your routine and you're like I've been doing what I'm supposed to do. I show up and I do my workout and I just am not seeing the physical changes that I expected, or that damn number on the scale is not coming down. Or maybe you've been putting extra hours in at work, chasing a promotion, but that's not happening. Or maybe it's in your relationship with your spouse, your partner, your parent, your sibling. You're putting in a lot of effort. You're trying to be aware of your communication skills and your listening skills and then being open to their vantage point, but you're still not connecting. You still feel disconnected. There's just no breakthrough. So what do you do?

Speaker 1: 2:49

We all assume that if we work hard and if we grind, grind, grind, that results naturally follow. But sometimes it's not about working harder, it's about working differently. And sometimes working differently is harder than just working harder. It's like we hit this invisible wall. So, for example, if you've been going to the gym and that scale isn't coming down, perhaps it's not that you need to work out harder. Maybe you're giving all of your effort.

Speaker 1: 3:20

That scale is just maybe not the measure that you should be looking at to see if your progress is actually moving in the right direction. Progress comes in waves. We want it to be linear. We want to get on the scale and see that we went down five pounds this week and then another five next week because we're doing the same workout. We're paying attention, but you get on the scale and, lo and behold, you went back up three pounds and you're paying attention to something that perhaps isn't the best measure. So you have to do things differently. Maybe you gauge your progress with regard to your workouts in the gym based on how long you're able to now jog on the treadmill versus how long you had to walk instead or how often you had to take breaks. Maybe you judge your success or your progress in the gym based on how many reps you can do of an increased weight if you're weight training versus if your muscles measure bigger.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Yet Maybe in your relationships you celebrate small wins, like being able to have a conversation and express yourself and feel safe, being vulnerable without feeling guarded and getting angry and ending up in an argument. Well, maybe you're not fully feeling connected to that person yet, but the fact that you were able to do that, even in just a small interaction or exchange, is a measure of progress. So it isn't that you need to double down on what you're doing and work harder and go to the gym twice as much or try harder to be accommodating to that difficult person in your life, or chase harder, kiss more ass at work for that promotion I mean, I'm just being real here or stay later. Maybe if I work 10 hours of overtime instead of five, it'll show that I'm really serious about this promotion. Maybe you don't need to do that. Maybe you don't need to do that. Maybe you don't need to work harder. Maybe you just need to change your vantage point and measure your progress or your ability to achieve these goals in a different way. Sometimes we feel comfortable just we're doing the thing, so we're doing it, and it must be right. Even if we don't see results, we'll just keep doing it.

Speaker 1: 5:29

This is kind of like a great segue from harder versus differently, versus just showing up and doing the same thing over and over and over and over again with no results. Listen, I am a huge, huge advocate of consistency. Being consistent will beat perfection every single time. Making small steps in the right direction consistently will beat doing something huge out of left field every single time. Making small steps in the right direction consistently will be doing something huge out of left field every single time. But here's the thing If you keep showing up and you're not seeing any results and you're not reflecting on what you maybe need to do differently, ask yourself am I just comfortable hanging out here? I'm not seeing the progress I want in the gym, but maybe that's because I'm not pushing myself, and not in a way of like work harder, but in a way of like I'm just checking the box. I know I could probably increase the speed or the incline on the treadmill, but I just I'm good here.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Stepping outside of your comfort zone again is not about working harder. It's about challenging yourself to experiment with something new, to try something new. New does not equate to harder. New just is often uncomfortable. So don't get stuck in just doing the comfortable thing. And sometimes we stay in this loop because it's disguised avoidance. What do I mean by that? Instead of like being productive, you just feel like you're productive. Your results don't indicate productive but you feel like, well, I was busy all day. I am scheduling date nights to go out with my husband, so that means that our relationship's going to get better. Well, I got news for you. That's not what it means and I can attest to that.

Speaker 1: 7:12

A decade ago, when Greg and I were having some trouble in our relationship with our communication and just our connection in general, we did what every dating relationship expert tells you to do Date your spouse Great advice. But dating my spouse, or him dating me meant let's go party together, like, let's schedule more time to be together, leave the kids with grandparents, we'll go out and party and we'll have a blast and that's a date night. Never mind that we didn't like speak to each other about anything important during that time, never mind that we maybe were interacting with a ton of other people around us and it wasn't really about us. It was a date and that was fine. That's not the same thing as what we mean when we say date your spouse. Now, date your spouse. Go sit at a restaurant and intimately. Have a conversation, ask each other about how you're feeling about things and how you're doing as a partner, and what are the things that you aspire to accomplish and what are the things that you feel are holding you back. Date your spouse and go do something challenging together. We did an entire episode about climbing a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado a few months ago, something we didn't really plan for, we had never really discussed, but we went and conquered it and we did it together and that was a date, because we got to go, put our nose to the grind and do something difficult together, encourage each other, talk on the way, see when each other were at our breaking points and like figure out how to help each other get through tough moments.

Speaker 1: 8:48

So don't just do things just to do them and not see any results. Don't just do things and stay busy and then think it's productive. It's not. Get real with yourself and ask am I really being productive in this relationship? Am I being productive at the gym? Am I being productive at work? Am I being productive as a mom, or am I just looking like it or feeling like I have been busy all day and so therefore, that means productive.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Hard truths, hard truths. So here are three ways to kind of line up with those that are simple and to the point. If you're doing something and you don't see results that you want, don't work harder. Work differently. Stop doubling down on what's not working. Period Back to the gym. Maybe it's not about working out harder or longer at the gym. Maybe you're not sleeping well. Maybe you're not eating the right things. Maybe you're not taking the supplements that you need. What are other things that you need to tweak? Challenge yourself.

Speaker 1: 9:47

The second thing is get uncomfortable. Stop doing things because it's comfortable. If you're not getting that promotion at work, maybe you have to have an uncomfortable conversation with your boss about the effort that you've been putting in and about what your goals are and what the person they're looking for for that promotion looks like. Are the actions that you're taking in alignment with that? Like? That's an uncomfortable conversation to have, but it's necessary. So stop being comfortable with what you're doing and just being okay with not getting results and then blaming yourself or putting yourself through the ringer. Do things that are uncomfortable. Have the uncomfortable conversations, make the uncomfortable decisions and then look for feedback. It's not just about the results, it's also about the feedback that you're getting along the way and start tracking it instead of assuming where are your results coming from? What is working? Bust out a journal, if you need to put it in your phone notes. Make notes on your calendar about on this date. We did this and the result was this and we felt so connected.

Speaker 1: 10:52

On this date, I put together a plan to open my own business and a strategy and, instead of just hoping that whatever I'm deciding to do is going to work, I'm tracking it so that I can make adjustments and, instead of just answering emails and getting through the day, make sure that what you're doing is productive in the way that you need it to be, not just because you're supposed to be here or not just because it's what you've always done, but in a real, tactical, measurable way. So here's your challenge. I told you I was going to give you a little tough love on this episode. It's not because I want you to feel bad or feel stupid or feel like what you're doing is wrong. It's because I want to make sure that you feel empowered to go do things in the way that you need to do them. Feel empowered to make change that's going to be meaningful in your life.

Speaker 1: 11:44

So I want you to identify one area just start with one, one area where you feel stuck in your life and I want you to ask yourself am I grinding away at something that just isn't working? Am I spinning my wheels and just full of frustration? And then the next question is what can I do differently? What shift can I make today to do something outside of the scope of what I've been trying? And then, guess what, if that doesn't work, do something different the next day or the next time. What do they say?

Speaker 1: 12:20

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, expecting different results. If that's not right, I'm close. But yeah, it's true. If you keep doing the same thing over and over and over again and you don't get the results that you want and nothing ever changes, you're going to become insane. And insane can look like frustration. Insane can look like depression. Insane can look like isolated from your family and the people that you love and that mean the most to you. You've got to be agile and you've got to be able to look at yourself and answer these hard questions and give yourself some tough love, because you deserve it and you can do it.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And, like I said, I didn't want to hear it when I needed to hear it, but in hindsight I'm so glad that I at least entertained whoever was giving me this message so that I could really, when I was ready, when I was ready, give myself this gift. And so, when you're ready, when you're ready, you have to be ready. You have to be ready to get honest, you have to be ready to do hard things. When you're ready, it's here for you and you can do it and you deserve it. Listen, I want to know how we can support you. Please text the show or DM me at cameoelisebraun on Instagram.

Speaker 1: 13:34

There I'm sharing the behind the scenes of our life, the hard things that I'm doing, the good days, the bad days and everywhere in between. Each week, we give you a podcast. It's either me, it's my husband and I, or we have an incredible guest who shares usually their story of facing something difficult, needing to make some big moves, big bold changes to change the trajectory of their life, and there are a lot of lessons that we can learn just by seeing what other people have been through and saying you know what. Not all of that resonates with me, but I can definitely take that piece of advice and I can apply it to my life and see if it does indeed help me, and you'll find that likely. There are a few little cookie crumbs that get left behind from all of these people that do help you.

Speaker 1: 14:21

So we have new episodes every Wednesday. I'm so glad that you're here. My intensity level isn't always at a thousand, but today I'm feeling really inspired and motivated myself and really care to extend that to you. So thank you again so much for being here. And don't forget that we only keep what we have by giving it away. So if something on this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who you think it might resonate with too. You only know what you know until you know better, and then you do better. So be sure to send this to someone you care about, because we all feel stuck about something at some point and need a little support Until next time.