Two questions to ask when you get stuck - Meeting Notes Newsletter

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. Summer is closing to an end here in the UK. My boys will be back at school soon. It's nice to not have to buy so much food, but they do bring a real air of fun and chaos to life.

As they get older I'm trying to enjoy that noise and chaos as much as I can - it won't last forever - although with house prices in the UK, I may be wrong.

I get stuck often in work and life on projects, goals, ambitions or simply just trying to work through the many challenges life throws at me. We all get stuck. Today we'll cover two questions I ask when I get stuck. They may work for you.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Getting Unstuck Officer (CGUO) at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and cultivating a bright future of work. 

I get stuck too - here’s what I do

Life can throw challenges at us. Work can feel overwhelming. We often get stuck. Sometimes, when I’m stuck (which is often), I dwell on the problem too long – at the expense of my wellbeing and sanity.

I see this a lot at work – people bogged down in the details, feeling more stuck as days and weeks go by. Part of my role as a business consultant is helping people get unstuck. Often it’s very simple: I help them see what they could already see, if they weren’t lost in the weeds.

In my own life, I’m learning to ask these questions earlier. However, it can take a bit of pain to realise you’re stuck, but when I do, I ask myself:

1. What can I do?
2. Why will this work?

These questions are pretty powerful. They stop your mind from focussing on the negative and lift you out of the quagmire. Instead of feeling like things are being done to you, it shifts the control into your hands – what can you do?

The first question shifts you from victim to victor. It helps you see what’s in your control. Even in panic or overwhelm, there’s always something you can do — you just need to switch mental frames. It may not solve the whole problem, but it puts you in action mode – which is sorely needed in many businesses. What can we do right now? List it.

The second question reinforces confidence. It takes your action from question one and helps you think through how it can work.

Too often, teams get trapped in negativity bias - focusing on why things will fail – I see this often. This question shifts perspective toward possibility, towards hope, towards energy.

Sure, you need to see the positive and the ways it could fail, but let’s not shoot down ideas before we even try. There’s too little hope and spirit in business. We don't want blind faith, but we do want belief in our ideas, our abilities and our solutions.

Ultimately, these two questions move us into solution mode, turning indecision and overwhelm into action. I use them a lot as a consultant — and they almost always help people move forward. And yes, I use them in my own life pretty much every day.

These two questions help to bring the one thing we all often need, especially when we are stuck – clarity, with a path forward.

💬 Quote of the Week

“I canʼt sit still and see another man working. I want to get up and superintend, and walk round with my hands in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my energetic nature. I canʼt help it.” — Jerome K. Jerome - Three men in a boat.

📖 Books I’m Reading

• Self-confidence for actors - Alexa Ispas — I often read books that are tangental to my work. For example, as I do presentations, YouTube videos and workshops, I read a lot of books on acting - this one is great for learning how to build your own self-confidence.
• Selling the Invisible - Harry Beckwith — what a phenomenal book on marketing service businesses. It's more than that though, it's a book on good business, good leadership and communication. It's joined Paul Hawken's Growing a Business as a book I shall re-read every year.

Find more great books on my recommended reading list.

🚀 Creative Soul Projects

Alongside Cultivated Management, I take on small creative projects that stretch my skills and spark ideas—sharing them here to inspire your creativity, communication, and leadership.

I'm off to Budapest in a couple of months to deliver a Keynote talk, I was also there earlier this year with my family. Given I absolutely love Budapest, I thought I'd create a mini travel-guide in my new favourite tool, FOLD.

Complete with Google maps, photos and some micro text, here is the travel guide! Enjoy.

🤝 Support Cultivated Management

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Buying my latest book. Workshop Mastery.
3. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
4. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
5. Buying a copy of Take a Day Off
6. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work 

Until next week.

Take care of yourself and others.

Rob..