Why do I keep reacting the same way
You cannot see a barrier directly. You find it by its effects, and then work backward.
Most leadership advice focuses on what you can learn: a framework, a meeting format, a better way to run a one-on-one. It rarely asks what is already steering your reactions before you have consciously chosen anything at all.
An internal barrier is exactly that. A reflex picked up so early you never thought to question it, still firing in situations where it no longer helps, from somewhere you cannot see. They are beliefs that hold you back and are not necessarily true, formed when your thinking was not mature, though there was always a good reason at the time.
Because they sit in the subconscious they are automatic rather than conscious, which is why you cannot find them by looking. You find them by their effects: the hesitation before you would otherwise speak, the same conflict with the same peer, the defensiveness the moment feedback arrives.
What you get
- The three places barriers usually surface
- A five-question backward trace from the reaction to the belief underneath
- The uncomfortable question, and an honest note about which part is actually hard
- How to help someone else find theirs without diagnosing them
Where should we send it?
One email with the worksheet. You can unsubscribe from anything else in one click.
On its way
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Adapted from the Mindfulness chapter of The Mindful Product Company by Sam McAfee.