From Stuck To Momentum, Overwhelm into Motion: the rule of one thing. How to make progress with complex goals, with challenging client cases, or when stuck.

Feeling stuck while juggling big, messy goals? We’ve all been there. Today we talk about a simple, coaching-proof, reliable way to turn overwhelm into motion: after years of coaching complex client cases, one thing never fails - oversimplification outperforms overcomplication when you need momentum and progress. You’ll hear practical examples across domains: a single rule that quietly drives weight loss, a daily recognition habit that nudges culture toward engagement, and a no‑frills sales sprint that outperforms complex business strategies. Each tactic is intentionally small, easy to track, and resilient on your busiest days. We also dig into the softer but crucial arenas: repairing strained relationships with one genuine appreciation every day, and rebuilding self‑esteem by recording a single hard thing you did or value you upheld. These practices shrink the gap between intention and action and create proof you can feel. No sprawling frameworks, no massive life overhaul just one behavior you can start your day on. If this resonates, tap follow, share it with someone who feels stuck, and leave a quick review. What’s your one action you’ll start today? Text Me Your Thoughts and IdeasSupport the showBrought to you by Angela Shurina Behavior-First, Executive, Leadership and Optimal Performance Coach 360, Change Leadership & Culture Transformation Consultant

• 0:09Speaker 00

  Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina. I'm your Partner in Transformation and Change, Health High Performance Executive and Leadership Coach, and just someone who is really passionate about helping each other, helping ourselves, helping the world to unlock more human potential in each of us. So together, we create amazing world and do things that inspire. Today, guys, we are talking about making progress and being stuck and working on complex goals or client cases.

• 0:54Speaker 00

  The world is complex, but I always like to repeat to myself and to my clients. You know, as an adult, you've probably solved all the easy problems, especially if you've been working on different goals and achievement. So all you have are complex problems. So no space, no time, no reason to complain. It just means that you've been quite successful with figuring out simple problems. So now everything that is left is complex. And the problem with complex goals is, well, they are complex. And very often, you don't really know how to approach them. Like, what do I do? There are so many things I might be doing.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  There are so many things I can ask ChatGPT and get all the answers that I'll ever need in my entire life. There are so many people saying, you know, this works and this works, or try my method, try my tool, try this system, buy this course. You know, there are so many things, like, what do I do? Whether that's health, relationships, business.

• 2:05Speaker 00

  Self-esteem, developing something in yourself, certain skills. But right now, for me, business is top of mind and making progress and growing it. Been kind of stuck for quite a while and it's frustrating. Like this morning, I woke up and I felt flat, like nothing is moving. Life feels flat and it's not a nice feeling. If you ever experienced that, then you know what I'm talking about. The first thing I did, that's sort of troubleshooting one-on-one, go and move, like go for a run, go for a walk, go for, go into nature, go for a high, go to the gym. I went to the gym, I like to lift when I feel that way.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  And things start feeling better right away. You get your dopamine flowing, cortisol and adrenaline, which are actually acutely are great things for energy and motivation and to get your idea muscle working as well in your brain. So I went to the gym and there are all these different ideas and things and analysis of what I've done, what worked, what didn't work. And I realized that I haven't been doing one thing that I always do for my clients' goals and cases, which are, in almost all of the cases, are quite complex.

• 3:29Speaker 00

  Whenever I have a complex goal to work with my client, and there are again all of the things that we can do and try, I ask myself this one question. What is one simplest, easiest thing I can start with? So when we do it with my client, we can't help but make progress. I'm not asking myself, what's the most feature-rich, complex, customized, fancy, advanced strategy out there?

• 4:08Speaker 00

  I'm not asking this, because most of my clients, just like all of us, already have a lot, a lot of things in their life, in their business, in things to think about in general.

• 4:20Speaker 00

  Our plates, our cups are full more often than not. And so because of that, I know that my clients nor I myself have the capacity to take on this whole other project that's gonna require me to change approach to my life, to my work, to my business. Plus, none of those things are guaranteed to work in your specific case. And what happens when we overcomplicate things or try to figure out a really complex solution? What happens is we are stuck in not knowing where to start or we start doing and things are not clicking because they're so complex and so many things have to come together

• 5:04Speaker 00

  to click and to work that we just stuck in this snowman land where we are doing a lot of stuff and trying to figure it out and it feels complex and it feels difficult, but we're not moving anywhere. And so the solution, what I learned in my coaching practice and I often need to remind myself in my own problems or when I'm trying to work on goals and challenges, the answer is not more complexity or another a book or several books with the system that you need to implement step by step that will require again overhaul of your whole life or business.

• 5:44Speaker 00

  No, the answer is something simple, something that when done consistently, something that you can start right away, something that when done consistently will move things forward. What am I talking about here? Let's talk examples, let's talk practice. Let's say you're trying to lose weight, which is also a complex goal. It's yeah, eat less, exercise more, but how do you actually do that? Even eat less, how do you actually do that? Like, many people would start thinking about what are the some macronutrient split or complex diet or nutrition plan? How do you make it balanced? But also, so I am not hungry and I'm not missing out, et cetera, et cetera.

• 6:26Speaker 00

  But actually, what would work for most people is asking questions like, well, what if I just make from now on all my drinks, all my liquids calorie free until I reach my goal? For most people, that means minus two hundred, three hundred calories per day. And that is often all that is needed to start making progress. So instead of thinking, I need to go understand, no, just like, don't drink your calories. How about that rule? It works. Then if you're a leader, a manager, eh, or an entrepreneur, a founder, and you have a team to manage or a whole organization and you need to change culture.

• 7:10Speaker 00

  Instead of asking, what are all the things that we can change, need to change, have to change? Ask, like, what's one thing that when we change it and do consistently will improve it? The, this culture state that we are in? Let's say you don't have a lot of engagement and motivation. So how about creating a practice of recognizing each person's work every single day? Whether through some technology and setting up certain reminders and triggers, automating that, or more often than not, we do have the capacity, actually, like, team manager,

• 7:55Speaker 00

  or if you manage a small team too, just give one recognition for one's work, which will take probably a couple of minutes, yeah, maybe five minutes tops, but it will change the course of someone's day, the engagement, the motivation, the productivity. And when done consistently, we'll move things forward. Let's say sales, you know, you're not sure what clients to approach, what offers to make. Nothing seems to be working. What if for the next, what if for the next thirty days, what you do is you just try different things

• 8:34Speaker 00

  with thirty, forty, fifty people, whatever that number is, and you approach different clients with different offers and see what clicks.

• 8:44Speaker 00

  I'm guilty of that too. I just don't stick with the practice long enough for it to actually work. So what I'm doing right now is until things start moving consistently forward, I will just do that. Every day trying new offers with new clients, asking about problems, asking about challenges until something clicks. One thing, just reaching out to, for me, it's thirty people every day and offering different things, asking about challenges and problems that I might have to solve. Just one practice, instead of just like this system for lead generation and marketing

• 9:26Speaker 00

  and some sort of automated sales system, just one thing.

• 9:33Speaker 00

  Relationships, if you are in a tense relationship with anyone, how about noticing one good thing about them, telling that to them every single day? Try it for a month, see how your relationship develops. Or let's say you're battling with self-esteem, that for most of us at some point will come up, when we fall short, when we fail, when we don't do as well as we think we should be doing, right? Like, how do you bring your self-esteem up? Well, what if for the next months or maybe your whole life, that's a great practice.

• 10:16Speaker 00

  You start finding one thing that you do well or you're just proud of for showing up. One hard thing every day, you find that and like, you know, you could. Just be slacking off, but you did this, or you do this. Or you do something well, but you don't notice. So maybe think through your day. And think about all the things you did for other people, people thank you for. You probably do quite a few things and you just don't notice them because you are over focused on this one thing. That is not working well yet. But even then, congratulate yourself on that.

• 10:58Speaker 00

  You're not trying to stay the same. You're trying to grow, to improve, to challenge yourself. You are going after that next thing. Which is just something you haven't mastered, you haven't gotten good at yet. So all of these small things done repeatedly will improve the state, the situation. And very often, we, what I learned in my practice with clients and myself, we just don't give it a fair chance. And we somehow start believing that we need this complex thing to get where we need to be. Where in reality, it's those few things.

• 11:42Speaker 00

  Again, for each goal, just one thing, pick one thing. Pick one thing that when done consistently, will improve things and just stick with it. And see how much less stress and pressure you have, A. How much more consistent your motivation gonna get. Plus, don't forget to celebrate and acknowledge you doing that thing. And instead of being stuck, you will start making progress. So the rule of one thing, because if you're working on a complex goal, on a complex client's case. Something internally in or externally for you. Just ask yourself today, what's one thing that when I do it?

• 12:28Speaker 00

  And I know I will be able to do it one hundred percent. So when I do it, things will start moving forward.

• 12:37Speaker 00

  Oversimplification works a lot better than over complication when it comes to making progress. One keeps you, one gets you moving, oversimplification that is, and the other keeps you stuck more often than not anyhow. So what's your one thing? And that's it for today, guys. A very short, sweet podcast episode, sharing my own pains and gains and solutions, but also what worked for my clients. I've been coaching for 18 years, guys, and I've seen a lot of things working, not working, but still, still, a lot of things

• 13:19Speaker 00

  I need to repeat to myself that this works, so use it. There is no shame in getting back to the basics and doing the one thing that actually works. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Thank you for listening. Please do rate, review, and share this podcast episode with other people who might be struggling, who might be stuck, and you might not know the advice to give to them, but share with them this podcast that will get them thinking about their life and what they're working on in a better, more progressive, more actionable

• 14:00Speaker 00

  kind of way. Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Keep changing, keep learning, keep evolving, keep growing.