Dec. 11, 2025

When Progress Feels Wrong, You Might Be On Track

Send us a text Growth can be loud on Instagram and quiet in real life. We open our new series, What Growth Really Looks Like, by naming the truth most of us avoid: progress often feels like you’re going backwards. The rhythm gets messy, confidence dips, and your brain tells you to bail. Instead of treating that as failure, we show how discomfort, doubt, and confusion are the exact markers that you’re expanding. We walk through familiar moments—your first client, your first launch, the first ...

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Send us a text

Growth can be loud on Instagram and quiet in real life. We open our new series, What Growth Really Looks Like, by naming the truth most of us avoid: progress often feels like you’re going backwards. The rhythm gets messy, confidence dips, and your brain tells you to bail. Instead of treating that as failure, we show how discomfort, doubt, and confusion are the exact markers that you’re expanding.

We walk through familiar moments—your first client, your first launch, the first time you share your work—and unpack why they feel like spinning your wheels even when you’re doing the right things. You’ll hear how unlearning precedes improvement, why the mind mistakes slowness for regression, and how to measure progress with behaviors and consistency rather than mood. We also share the quote anchoring this series—feeling lost doesn’t mean you’re off track, it means you’re expanding—and apply it directly to coaching and leadership. If you’ve ever messaged “I’m stuck,” you’ll recognize the pattern that often signals a breakthrough is near.

From there, we get practical. We talk about staying calm when coaches panic, spotting the edge of a breakthrough, and using one reliable hack: surrounding yourself with people who are willing to grow, get uncomfortable, and think differently. Community normalizes the messy middle and gives you the feedback loops to keep moving. We close by teeing up the next step in the journey: how to walk into new rooms without wasting time, money, or energy, and how to know which rooms are right for your season.

If the work feels awkward, you’re not broken—you’re building. Press play, share this with a friend who’s on the edge of something new, and leave a review with one uncomfortable action you’re taking this week.

Interested in monthly coaching that helps you elevate how you think, act, and lead?

ELEVATE by Modern Leadership Coaching gives you the structure and support to turn intention into real momentum.

Join a community of people who are choosing to lead themselves, right now:

https://www.modernleadership.us/elevate



Chapters

00:00 - New Series: Real Growth

00:26 - Discomfort As A Sign Of Progress

01:07 - On The Edge Of Breakthrough

01:40 - Coaches, Panic, And Perception

02:20 - Community And The Right Rooms

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.400
We're kicking off a brand new series called What Growth Really Looks Like.

00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:08.640
Because most people think growth feels great until they're actually growing.

00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:15.919
When you start growing, whether that's in your confidence, in your business, or coaching, it almost never feels good.

00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:19.120
In fact, it usually feels like you're going backwards.

00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:23.120
You start doubting yourself, wondering if you're doing something wrong.

00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:26.399
But what's actually happening when growth feels like that?

00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:29.199
Think back to a time when you were stepping into something new.

00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:35.280
Maybe it was your first client or your first launch or your first time really putting yourself out there.

00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:37.520
Remember how uncomfortable that felt.

00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:41.840
Like you were doing everything right, but it still felt like you were spinning your wheels.

00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:43.759
Now look back at that season.

00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:46.159
You can probably see it now, right?

00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:47.439
That was growth.

00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:49.280
It just didn't feel like it back then.

00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:50.320
That's so true.

00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.479
Growth always messes with your rhythm.

00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:56.880
A lot of it is you're unlearning old behaviors before you can start implementing new ones.

00:00:57.039 --> 00:01:02.159
And I want to remind you that in that season, you're not going backwards, you're going deeper.

00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:07.359
And when you start reflecting and questioning, that's growth actually doing its job.

00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:12.799
Every breakthrough I've seen and experienced comes after a stretch of confusion.

00:01:13.040 --> 00:01:13.680
Always.

00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:16.879
We see this all the time, especially with the people that we coach.

00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.640
We'll get a message that says, I'm stuck or I don't know what to do next.

00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:28.319
And after asking them a few questions and getting to the end of the week, they realize that they felt that way because they were on the edge of a breakthrough.

00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:35.120
And every time you're presented with that, you get an opportunity to lean in, to grow, and to become somebody different.

00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:37.200
But it's also much easier to lean out.

00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.159
And that's why as a coach, it's so important not only to point it out, but to see it in yourself.

00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:46.480
So that's why today's quote is feeling lost doesn't mean you're off track.

00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:48.319
It means you're expanding.

00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:52.319
So I'm curious, why do you think coaches panic when they experience this?

00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:55.439
It's because we've been trained to think that progress feels good.

00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.400
And it doesn't.

00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:59.439
Growth is awkward sometimes, and it's supposed to be.

00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:02.480
So what do you tell a coach who feels like they're regressing?

00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:05.920
I would say don't judge your progress by how it feels.

00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:07.519
Look at how you're showing up.

00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:10.080
If you're actually still moving, you're growing.

00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:12.240
So how do you deal with this personally?

00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:17.439
I remind myself that discomfort is proof that I'm stretching into something new.

00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.319
If it's easy, I'm probably not growing anymore.

00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:30.240
Now I want to give you one quick hack that has always worked for me, especially in this area of wanting to grow and then being willing to lean in and actually do it.

00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:38.319
And that's when you surround yourself with other people who want to grow, who are willing to get uncomfortable, and are willing to think of things differently, just like you are.

00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:40.560
It's so much easier to stay the course.

00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:42.240
That's what community does.

00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:44.479
It normalizes that messy middle.

00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:49.039
So once you learn to trust this kind of growth, something interesting happens.

00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.599
You start walking into new rooms.

00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:57.520
But how do you even know if you're walking into the right rooms so you're not wasting your time, money, or your energy?

00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:59.840
That's exactly what we're talking about next.

00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:03.520
How to make sure that you step into the right rooms.