Is your brain giving you a 'Does Not Compute' error?

Have you ever had a task on your to-do list that you fail to make progress on despite numerous attempts or intentions to get it done?

I've been spinning my wheels for three weeks or more trying to create a social media calendar, an idea that I have resisted strongly for over a year. My mental roadblocks for this task are multiple.

1. I am truly a rebel when it comes to following imposed rules by an "authority" whose motives are greedy. The relationship between users and service providers should be symbiotic—they provide the platform, and we provide engaging content. However, the monetization of these platforms requires us to play an "algorithm game" that is beyond annoying. 
2. I am a spontaneous creative. My best thinking and products come from genuine inspiration (like this blog😉).

Launching my new group coaching changed everything. WE WIN! enables me to serve over 150 women entrepreneurs and business owners annually. And to do that, I need to build awareness and connection with this audience, which leads me back to the need to raise my social media game.

In case you haven't heard yet, I'm a bit of a Psychology nerd, and I always find insights into behavior helpful. For my current dilemma, I started with an analysis of motivation. All the critical elements were present:
☑ Understand why what I am doing matters
☑ Have the skills/capabilities to do the task
☑ Have the means/tools to do the task
☑ Have the opportunity/time to do the task
☑ Feel connected to the reward/outcome of the task
I couldn't find a flaw in my motivation to do this work, although there was no denying that every attempt I had made resulted in me getting completely side-tracked and making no meaningful progress.

So as I sat outside the Orthodontist office this morning thinking about what I needed to accomplish today, I had to ask myself one of my favorite coaching questions, "What would have to be true for me to turn my social media assets into a posting plan?" Immediately, a visual popped into my head in which I was sorting pictures of my assets into a storyboard. DING! DING! DING! I suddenly realized why I was feeling so stuck!

[I'm curious, did the ⚡ strike you too?]

I'm going to let my inner Psychology geek take the lead here and give you the science behind my struggle. Our brains are very complex organs with specialty areas. The broadest distinction within the brain is the left and right hemispheres. The right hemisphere is the driver for creative tasks, and the left hemisphere controls logic-based tasks. When I visualized myself completing my social media calendar, I was engaged in a right-brained activity that depended on visual information. The process I was unsuccessfully attempting to use was a left-brain-oriented calendaring tool. Thus, my brain kept returning a "Does Not Compute" error.

The answer was so simple. I need to step away from Hootsuite and complete a visual process first, then I can transfer that into the software. Now that I have a new vision in my head about how I will complete this task, I'm ready to put it back on my priority list. I also feel more confident in the task's value because I'm thinking in terms of a storyboard rather than a shotgun approach. 

There are 3 basic principles for getting unstuck:

1. Recognizing you are stuck 
2. Figuring out why you are stuck 
3. Understanding what you need to do differently to get unstuck

This sounds deceptively simple. In reality, most of the time we need an external perspective to get this clarity. Breaking out of our thinking rut is always a challenge, but necessary.

Do you have an elusive to-do that is keeping you stuck? Let me know! I'd love to help you.

Grab Time On My Calendar