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
Why You’re Not Broken—You’re Stuck (And What Actually Helps You Move Forward)
Feeling stuck doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It means your momentum is meeting friction—and friction can be mapped, tested, and changed. We open season five by dismantling the “broken” label and replacing it with a practical path forward using a simple, repeatable framework you can start today.
We break down five root causes of stuckness—outdated beliefs, fear disguised as practicality, perfectionism paralysis, energy depletion, and misaligned environments—and show how each one quietly blocks your potential. Then we walk through the CLEAR method: Clarify a concrete picture of “unstuck,” Locate your primary obstruction, Experiment with small, low-risk actions, Assess the results without judgment, and Repeat what works at a larger scale. Along the way, we share real client stories, including Sarah, who redefined leadership on her own terms and earned a promotion, and Marcus, who reframed saving as service and built lasting financial stability.
Expect specific tactics you can apply this week: the Monday morning visualization six months out, the 70% “good enough” rule to beat perfectionism, one-week belief trials to test new narratives, and environment tweaks that make the right choice the easy choice. You’ll leave with a 30-day plan to identify your main blockage, run smart experiments, and build momentum that sticks—proving to yourself that progress is a process, not a verdict on your worth.
If this conversation helped, share it with someone who needs a nudge, subscribe for more practical tools, and leave a quick review so others can find the show. Your next step doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be forward.
Healing in Motion: Rebuilding Your Life Through Movement and Meaning A roadmap for getting unstuck
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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. Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Kris Harris, and today we're diving into something that I know so many of you struggle with. If you've ever looked in the mirror and thought, what's wrong with me? Why can't I just get my life together? This episode is for you because here's what I want you to know right from the start. You're not broken. You never were. But you might be stuck, and there's a world of difference between those two things. Today's episode is called Why You're Not Broken, You're Stuck and What Actually Helps You Move Forward. And I promise you, by the end of our time together, you're going to have a completely different perspective on whatever challenges you're facing right now. You're going to walk away with practical tools that actually work, and most importantly, you're going to stop seeing yourself as damaged goods and start seeing yourself as someone who's simply navigating a temporary situation. So let's start with this idea that you're broken. Where does this even come from? Society loves to pathologize everything. Can't focus, you must have ADHD. Feeling anxious, you need medication, procrastinating on your goals, you lack willpower. And while there are certainly times when professional help is absolutely necessary and valuable, we've created this culture where every struggle gets labeled as a deficiency, as something fundamentally wrong with who we are. But here's what I've learned after years of coaching people through major life transitions. Most of the time, you're not broken, you're stuck. And being stuck is completely different from being broken. When something is broken, it needs to be fixed or replaced. It's damaged, defective, beyond repair. But when something is stuck, it just needs to be moved. It needs the right conditions, the right approach, the right leverage to get flowing again. Think about a river that's been dammed up. The water isn't broken, it's perfectly good water. It just can't flow because there's an obstruction. Remove the obstruction, and that water will rush forward with incredible force. That's exactly what happens with people. You have all this potential, all this energy, all this capability, but something is blocking the flow. And once we identify what that obstruction is and clear it away, you don't just trickle forward, you surge. So what creates these obstructions? What gets us stuck in the first place? I've identified five main culprits, and I guarantee you're going to recognize yourself in at least one of these. First, outdated beliefs. You're operating with a set of beliefs about yourself, about the world, about what's possible that served you at one point but are now holding you back. Maybe you learned as a child that you're not good with money or not creative or not leadership material. These beliefs became your identity, and now you're living inside a box that doesn't fit who you've grown to become. Second, fear masquerading as practicality. Oh, this one is sneaky. You tell yourself you're being realistic when really you're being scared. I can't start that business because the market is too competitive. I can't go back to school because I'm too old. I can't move to a new city because it's too risky. But when you dig deeper, it's not really about the practical concerns. It's about the fear of failure, the fear of judgment, the fear of stepping into your power, and then potentially falling short. Third, perfectionism paralysis. You want to make the right choice, so you make no choice at all. You research endlessly, you plan obsessively, you wait for the perfect moment that never comes. Meanwhile, life is passing you by while you're stuck in analysis mode. Here's a truth bomb. There is no perfect choice. There are only choices that lead to growth and choices that lead to stagnation. Fourth, energy depletion. You're trying to move forward while running on empty. You're overwhelmed, burned out, depleted. And here's the thing: you can't think your way out of an energy problem. You can't strategize your way out of exhaustion. Sometimes being stuck is your system's way of forcing you to rest and recharge before you can move forward. And fifth, misaligned environment. You're trying to grow in soil that doesn't support your growth. Maybe you're surrounded by people who are threatened by your ambitions, or you're in a job that drains your soul, or you're living in a place that feels completely wrong for who you're becoming. Your environment either supports your growth or sabotages it. There's really no neutral. Now here's where it gets interesting. Once you realize you're not broken, just stuck, everything changes, because stuck problems have stuck solutions. And I'm going to give you a framework that will help you identify exactly where you're stuck and what to do about it. I call it the clear method, C-L-E-A-R. C stands for clarify. Get crystal clear on what being unstuck actually looks like for you. Not what your parents want, not what society expects, not what looks good on Instagram. What you actually want. I want you to write down three specific things that would be different in your life if you weren't stuck anymore. Be specific. I want to be happier is not specific enough. I want to wake up excited about my work three days out of five. Now that's specific. L stands for locate the obstruction. Which of those five stuck points I mentioned earlier resonates most with you? Is it outdated beliefs, fear masquerading as practicality, perfectionism paralysis, energy depletion, misaligned environment? Be honest with yourself. Sometimes you'll find it's a combination, but there's usually one primary culprit that's creating the biggest blockage. E stands for experiment. This is where most people go wrong. They try to solve their stuck problem with one big dramatic change, and when that doesn't work, they give up and decide they really are broken. But here's the thing: being stuck is rarely solved by one big push. It's solved by consistent small experiments. If you think your beliefs are the problem, experiment with acting as if a different belief were true for just one week. If you think it's your environment, experiment with one small change to your physical space or social circle. A stands for assess and adjust. After each experiment, pause and honestly evaluate what happened. Did you feel more unstuck or more stuck? What worked? What didn't? What surprised you? This isn't about judging yourself, it's about gathering data. Being unstuck is an iterative process, not a one-time event. And R stands for repeat and scale. Once you find something that creates even a tiny bit of forward movement, do more of it. Scale it up. If changing your morning routine for one week helped you feel more energized, what would happen if you committed to it for a month? If reaching out to one new person in your field opened up possibilities, what would happen if you reached out to one new person every week? Now I want to address something that might be coming up for you right now. You might be thinking, so, Chris, this all sounds great in theory, but you don't understand how stuck I really am. I've been this way for years. Maybe I really am different. Maybe I really am broken. And I hear you, I really do. But here's what I want you to consider. What if the very fact that you're listening to this podcast, that you're seeking solutions, that you're not giving up? What if that's proof that you're not broken? Now let me give you some specific guidance on implementing this clear method. For clarify, use what I call the Monday morning test. Imagine it's Monday morning six months from now, and you're completely unstuck. What does that morning look like? How do you feel when you wake up? What's different about your energy and routine? Write this down in vivid detail. Broken things don't seek repair, broken things don't have hope, broken things don't keep trying, but you're here, you're listening, you're still believing even in your darkest moments that change is possible. That's not broken behavior, that's stuck behavior, and stuck is solvable. I also want to normalize the fact that getting unstuck isn't a linear process. Some days you'll feel like you're making huge progress. Other days you'll feel like you're right back where you started. This is normal. This is part of the process. Progress isn't a straight line, it's a spiral. And even when it feels like you're going backwards, you're actually moving at a higher level than where you were before. For the experiment step, try these approaches. If outdated beliefs are your issue, act as if the opposite were true for one week. If fear masquerading as practicality is your block, write down your worst fear and three specific things you'd do if it happened. If perfectionism paralyzes you, implement the good enough rule. Take action when something is 70% ready instead of waiting for 100%. Let me share a story that illustrates this perfectly. I worked with a client named Sarah who came to me convinced she was broken when it came to career success. She'd been in the same mid-level marketing job for eight years, watching her peers get promoted while she stayed stuck. She'd convinced herself she wasn't leadership material, that she wasn't strategic enough, that she was just destined to be average. But when we dug deeper, we discovered she wasn't broken at all. She was stuck in an outdated belief about what leadership looked like. She thought leaders had to be loud, aggressive, always the smartest person in the room. Since she was naturally more collaborative and thoughtful, she'd convinced herself she wasn't leader material. Once she realized that her style of leadership was actually exactly what many organizations needed, everything shifted. She started experimenting with small leadership opportunities, speaking up more in meetings, sharing her strategic ideas. Within six months, she was promoted to director. Within a year, she was leading a team of twelve people. Sarah wasn't broken. Her leadership abilities weren't broken. She was just stuck in a belief system that didn't recognize her strengths. Once we cleared that obstruction, her natural abilities could flow freely, and that's exactly what can happen for you. So here's what I want you to do after listening to this episode. First, stop using the word broken to describe yourself. Seriously. Catch yourself when you do it and consciously reframe. Instead of I'm broken when it comes to relationships, try I'm stuck in some old relationship patterns. Instead of I'm broken financially, try I'm stuck in some money beliefs that aren't serving me. Language shapes reality and broken language creates broken expectations. Let me give you another example that shows how powerful this shift from broken to stuck can be. I had another client, Marcus, who came to me convinced he was broken when it came to money. He was 35, made decent income as a software engineer, but somehow never had any savings. Every month he'd spend everything he made, sometimes more. He'd tried budgeting apps, financial advisors, even therapy, but nothing seemed to stick. He was convinced he had some kind of genetic defect when it came to money management, just like his parents who also lived paycheck to paycheck. Here's a 30-day unstuck challenge you can start immediately. Week one, complete your stuck inventory and identify your primary obstruction. Do your Monday morning visualization. Week two, design and implement one small experiment based on your obstruction. Week three, track your results and assess what's working. Week four, scale up what works and adjust what doesn't. That's it. Simple but effective. Second, go through the clear method I outlined. Start with clarify. Get specific about what unstuck looks like for you. Then locate your primary obstruction. This week, commit to one small experiment, just one. See what happens. Assess the results honestly, and if it moves you even 1% forward, scale it up. But when we really dug into his patterns, we discovered something interesting. Marcus wasn't broken around money. He was stuck in a subconscious belief that having money made you selfish and disconnected from others. Growing up poor, his family had always talked about wealthy people as those people who didn't care about family and community. So every time Marcus started accumulating money, his subconscious would find ways to get rid of it, because keeping it felt like betraying his family values. Once he realized this, everything changed. He started reframing saving money as a way to take care of his family and community better, to be more generous, to have more security to help others. Within eight months, he had built up a six-month emergency fund. Today, three years later, he's financially independent and actually gives more to charity than he ever could before. And finally, be patient with yourself. Getting unstuck takes time, and that's okay. You didn't get stuck overnight, and you won't get unstuck overnight either. But every single day you're not moving backward is a day you're positioning yourself to move forward. Every day you're choosing growth over stagnation is a victory worth celebrating. Before we wrap up, I want to leave you with this thought. The very fact that you feel stuck means you're aware that there's more for you. People who are truly broken don't feel stuck. They feel nothing, but you feel the gap between where you are and where you want to be. And that gap? That's not evidence that you're broken. That's evidence that you're growing. That's evidence that your spirit is alive and pushing you toward your potential. You are not broken. You never were. You're a perfectly whole person navigating a temporary stuck situation. And temporary means it can change. Temporary means there's hope. Temporary means that with the right approach, the right experiments, and the right mindset, you can and will move forward. Thanks for listening, everyone. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. And remember, every single day you have a choice between staying stuck and taking one small step forward. Choose the step. Choose growth. Choose to believe in your own unbroken wholeness. I'll see you next week. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Kore Kast. 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 core cast 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 KoreFitnessAZ. 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.
