Kore Kast
Kore Kast is a Podcast dedicated to integrating health and wellness with an emphasis on Pilates and Functional Fitness. This weekly Podcast is hosted by Kris Harris, a Certified Pilates Instructor and Personal Trainer. Please subscribe and follow our journey...
Kore Kast
From Stuck to Steady: What Actually Creates Forward Momentum
We break down why momentum stalls and how to build it back with small wins, identity-led systems, and simple feedback loops. We add flexible momentum for messy seasons, smarter accountability, and planning by energy to turn progress from fragile to durable.
• naming outcome obsession, perfectionism paralysis, and feedback absence
• explaining micro wins and the progress principle
• shifting from goals to identity-based systems
• practicing compound consistency with weekly reviews
• five tools: two-minute rule, habit stacking, trackers, energy audit, weekly review
• case studies on Mark, Lisa, and process accountability
• building flexible momentum during life’s curveballs
• multiple pathways, minimum viable progress, recovery protocols
• planning with momentum seasons across the year
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For more resources, tips, and updates, visit www.kore-fit.com and follow us on Instagram at korefitnessaz
Healing in Motion: Rebuilding Your Life Through Movement and Meaning A roadmap for getting unstuck
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Welcome back to season five of the Kore Kast. I'm Kris Harris, and we're diving deeper than ever into the core ideas that shape everything around us. This season, we're exploring the essential questions, the breakthrough discoveries, and the game-changing conversations that matter most. From science and technology to philosophy and culture, we get straight to the heart of what's driving our world forward. Season five is going to blow your mind, so let's get started. Welcome to another episode. I'm your host Kris Harris, and today we're diving deep into something that affects all of us at some point. That frustrating feeling of being completely stuck. You know what I'm talking about. That moment when you're spinning your wheels, when every day feels like you're running in place, when you have all these goals and dreams but somehow can't seem to move the needle forward. Today's episode is called From Stuck to Steady: What Actually Creates Forward Momentum, and I'm going to share with you the science-backed strategies that can transform your stagnation into sustainable progress. This isn't about quick fixes or motivation porn. This is about understanding the mechanics of momentum and building systems that actually work. Let's start with a hard truth. Feeling stuck isn't a character flaw. It's not because you're lazy, unmotivated, or lacking willpower. The feeling of stagnation is actually your brain's natural response to certain conditions. And once you understand these conditions, you can change them. Think about the last time you felt truly stuck. Maybe it was in your career, your health journey, a creative project, or a relationship. I'm willing to bet that if you look closely, you'll find one or more of these three momentum killers at play. The first momentum killer is what I call outcome obsession. This is when we become so fixated on the end result that we lose sight of the process. Here's a real example. Sarah, a client of mine, wanted to lose 30 pounds. Every morning, she'd step on the scale, and if the number hadn't dropped, she'd feel defeated. Her entire sense of progress was tied to one metric that naturally fluctuates day to day. This obsession with the outcome made every small setback feel like a massive failure. The second killer is perfectionism paralysis. This is when we set standards so high that we can't even begin. We tell ourselves we'll start when we have the perfect plan, the perfect timing, or the perfect conditions. But perfection is the enemy of progress. I see this constantly with entrepreneurs who spend months perfecting their business plan instead of talking to a single customer. The third momentum killer is feedback absence. This happens when we're working in a vacuum without any clear indicators of progress. Imagine trying to learn piano without ever hearing the notes you play. That's what it's like when we don't create feedback loops in our work and life. Now, let's talk about what actually creates momentum. I want to introduce you to what I call the three-layer momentum framework. Think of momentum like a flywheel. It takes significant energy to get it spinning, but once it's moving, it becomes easier to maintain and accelerate. Layer one is microwins. These are the smallest possible steps you can take toward your goal. The key word here is smallest. If your goal is to write a book, a micro win isn't writing a chapter. It's opening your laptop and typing one sentence. If you want to get fit, it's not doing an hour-long workout. It's putting on your workout clothes. Why do micro wins work? Because they trigger what psychologists call the progress principle. Research by Teresa Amabole at Harvard Business School found that the single most important factor in maintaining motivation and positive emotions is making progress in meaningful work, even if that progress is small. Layer two is systems over goals. This is where most people get it backwards. They focus on what they want to achieve instead of who they need to become. James Clear talks about this brilliantly in atomic habits. Instead of saying I want to lose 20 pounds, you say, I'm becoming the type of person who prioritizes their health. Instead of I want to write a bestseller, it's I'm becoming a daily writer. Let me give you a concrete example of how this works. Mark, another client, was struggling to build his consulting business. He was focused on the goal of making six figures. But when we shifted his focus to becoming the type of person who shows up consistently, creating content daily, reaching out to prospects weekly, and improving his skills monthly, the revenue followed naturally. Layer three is compound consistency. This is where the magic happens. Small consistent actions compound over time to create massive results. But here's the thing about compound consistency. It's not just about doing the same thing every day. It's about consistently improving, even by tiny amounts. Now let's get tactical. Here are five specific strategies you can implement starting today to build unstoppable momentum. Strategy number one, the two-minute rule. If something takes less than two minutes and moves you toward your goal, do it immediately. Reply to that important email. Make that phone call. Write that paragraph. These microactions prevent tasks from piling up and create immediate forward motion. Strategy number two, the momentum stack. This is where you link a new habit to an existing one. After I pour my morning coffee, I write for 10 minutes. After I brush my teeth at night, I prepare my clothes for tomorrow. After I finish lunch, I take a five-minute walk. The existing habit becomes the trigger for the new one. Strategy number three, the progress tracker. Create a simple visual representation of your progress. This could be a habit tracker, a progress bar, or even just check marks on a calendar. The act of tracking itself creates motivation. Jerry Seinfeld famously used this method with his don't break the chain calendar for writing jokes daily. Strategy number four, the energy audit. Pay attention to when you have the most mental and physical energy. Then schedule your most important momentum building activities during those times. For most people, this is within the first few hours of waking up. Protect this time fiercely. Strategy number five, the weekly review. Every week, spend 15 minutes reviewing your progress. What worked? What didn't? What obstacles did you encounter? What will you adjust for next week? This review creates a feedback loop that prevents you from drifting off course. Let me share one more real-world example that ties all of this together. Lisa came to me completely overwhelmed. She was a marketing manager who wanted to transition to freelance consulting, but she felt paralyzed by everything she thought she needed to do. Create a website, build a portfolio, network with potential clients, develop service packages, set up contracts and invoicing systems. The list felt endless. We applied the momentum framework. First, we identified her micro win, spending just 10 minutes each morning researching one potential client. That's it. No pressure to reach out, no pressure to create anything, just research. This eliminated the perfectionism paralysis because there was no way to fail at 10 minutes of research. Next, we focused on her identity shift. Instead of I want to become a consultant, it became I am someone who helps businesses grow through strategic marketing. This subtle change affected how she showed up online, in conversations, and in her daily work. Finally, we built compound consistency. After two weeks of daily research, she naturally started reaching out to some of these prospects. After a month, she landed her first consulting project. Six months later, she had enough clients to go full-time freelance. The key was that each small action built on the previous one. Here's what I want you to remember. Momentum isn't about massive action or overnight transformation. It's about creating the right conditions for consistent forward movement. It's about choosing progress over perfection, systems over goals, and small wins over grand gestures. Your action items for this week. First, identify which momentum killer is affecting you most. Outcome obsession, perfectionism paralysis, or feedback absence. Second, choose one area of your life where you want to build momentum and define the smallest possible micro win you can achieve daily. Third, implement one of the five strategies I shared today. Remember, the goal isn't to fix everything at once. It's to create one small win today that makes tomorrow's win slightly easier. That's how you go from stuck to steady, from stagnation to unstoppable momentum. Thanks for listening today. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Until next time, keep building that momentum, one small win at a time. But before we wrap up, I want to dive deeper into something that many of you have been asking about. How do you maintain momentum when life inevitably throws curveballs at you? Because let's be honest, perfect conditions for progress are rare. Most of us are juggling work deadlines, family responsibilities, health challenges, or unexpected crises. This is where I want to introduce you to what I call flexible momentum. The ability to maintain forward progress even when your original plan gets disrupted. Think of it like water flowing down a mountain. When a boulder blocks the direct path, water doesn't stop, it finds another route around, over, or under the obstacle. Here's a practical example from my own life. Last year I was in the middle of writing my book when my father was diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly, my carefully planned writing schedule went out the window. I was spending entire weekends at hospitals and helping my family navigate treatment options. My first instinct was to put the book on hold entirely, but instead I applied flexible momentum. I reduced my writing micro win from 500 words per day to just 50 words. Some days that meant writing a few sentences in the hospital waiting room on my phone. Other days, it was jotting down thoughts during my commute. The key was that I never let more than two days pass without some form of progress. By the end of that challenging six-month period, I had written more than I expected. And more importantly, I had maintained my identity as a writer. This brings me to an important concept from resilience research. Dr. Martin Seligman's work on post-traumatic growth shows that many people don't just bounce back from adversity, they bounce forward. They use challenges as opportunities to develop new capabilities, deeper relationships, and stronger systems. The same principle applies to momentum. Obstacles don't have to kill your progress. They can actually strengthen your resilience muscles. So how do you build flexible momentum? Here are three specific strategies. First, create multiple pathways to your goal. If your primary plan is to exercise at the gym every morning, have backup plans. A home workout routine for sick days, walking meetings for busy days, and desk exercises for travel days. The goal isn't to do everything perfectly, it's to always have a viable option. Second, practice the minimum viable progress mindset. When life gets chaotic, ask yourself, what's the smallest thing I can do today that still counts as progress? Maybe you can't write for an hour, but you can open the document and read the last paragraph you wrote. Maybe you can't go for a run, but you can do 10 squats in your living room. These minimal actions keep the habit loop alive even when everything else falls apart. Third, build recovery protocols into your system from the beginning. Instead of hoping you'll never miss a day, plan for how you'll get back on track when you do. My rule is simple. If I miss one day, I don't try to make up for it the next day. I just resume with my normal routine. This prevents the all or nothing thinking that turns small setbacks into complete derailments. Now let's talk about something that can accelerate your momentum faster than any individual strategy, the power of community and accountability. We're social creatures, and research consistently shows that we're more likely to stick to commitments when other people are involved. But not all accountability is created equal, and most people get this completely wrong. The traditional approach to accountability is sharing your big goals with friends and family. But studies by psychologist Peter Gallwitzer found that this can actually backfire. When you announce your intentions, your brain gets a hit of satisfaction as if you'd already accomplished the goal. This can reduce your motivation to do the actual work. Instead, focus on process accountability rather than outcome accountability. Don't tell people you're going to lose 30 pounds. Tell them you're committing to logging your meals for 30 days and ask them to check in on that specific behavior. Don't announce you're writing a book. Share that you're writing for 20 minutes every morning and ask for support on that daily habit. Here's a perfect example of how this works. David wanted to start a side business, but had been thinking about it for over a year. Instead of announcing his business goals, he joined a group of entrepreneurs who met weekly to share what they'd accomplished that week and what they planned to do next. The key was that everyone focused on actions, not outcomes. David would say, This week I interviewed three potential customers, not I'm building a million-dollar business. Within six months, David had launched his consulting practice and was generating consistent revenue. But here's what's interesting. When I asked him what made the difference, he didn't say it was the advice he received or even the networking opportunities. It was the weekly commitment to show up and report on his progress. That simple act of having to say what he'd done forced him to do something each week. The second advanced concept is understanding momentum seasons. Just like nature has seasons of growth and rest, your personal and professional life has natural cycles of high energy and recovery periods. Fighting against these cycles is exhausting and ultimately counterproductive. Instead, you want to learn to recognize your seasons and adjust your momentum strategies accordingly. For example, January through March might be your building season when you have high energy and motivation to start new projects. July might be your maintenance season when you focus on sustaining existing habits while dealing with vacation schedules and summer distractions. October could be your acceleration season when you push toward year-end goals. Understanding these patterns allows you to plan accordingly rather than beating yourself up for having lower energy at predictable times. As we wrap up this extended deep dive into momentum, remember that everything we've discussed today comes down to one fundamental truth. Sustainable progress isn't about perfection, it's about persistence. It's about showing up consistently, adapting when life throws obstacles in your path, and building systems that support your long-term growth. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the KoreKast. I hope you're feeling inspired and empowered to take your health and wellness journey to the next level. Remember, every small step counts, and I'm here to support you every step of the way. If you'd enjoyed today's episode, I'd love for you to share it with your friends and family. And if you're feeling generous, consider donating at the link provided in the description. Your support helps us to keep bringing you the kore kast every week, packed with valuable insights and expert advice. For more resources, tips, and updates, don't forget to visit our website at www.kore-fit.com and follow us on Instagram at kore fitnessaz. Join our community and let's continue this journey together. Until next time, stay healthy, stay happy, and keep striving for your best self. This is Kris Harris signing off from the Kore Kast, and I'll see you next week.
