WHY YOU ARE STILL STUCK
(EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO)
You've tried better positioning. Clearer offers. Tighter messaging. More systems. Less procrastination. And the same problems keep showing up wearing different clothes
You know what you need to do.
You’ve known for a while now. Maybe months. Maybe years.
You’ve read the books. Done the courses. Hired the coaches. Built the frameworks. And you’re still circling the same issues, just with better vocabulary to describe them.
The business looks different. The problems feel the same.
This isn’t about discipline. It isn’t about clarity. It isn’t about finding the right strategy.
You’ve already found it. Several times, probably.
The question nobody’s asking is why you know what you should do, but you keep not doing it.
Or why you do it and it doesn’t work.
Or why you keep building things that look right on paper, but feel wrong the moment you try to live inside them.
That’s not a tactics problem. That’s something else entirely.
The Pattern Nobody Talks About
Here’s what I’ve noticed working with founders, consultants, and advisors over the past 15 years:
Most business problems aren’t business problems.
They’re structural conflicts between the strategy you’re trying to execute and how you actually operate.
I call this Strategic Friction.
It’s the gap between what you think the problem is and what the problem actually is.
Between who you think you need to be and who you actually are.
Between the business you’re building and the business you can sustainably run.
And the tricky part? You can’t see it from inside your own system.
Strategic Friction explains why smart, capable people stay stuck despite having all the information they need.
It’s not that they lack knowledge or motivation.
It’s that they’re unknowingly trying to execute strategies that require a version of themselves that doesn’t exist.
They’re building someone else’s business. Using someone else’s playbook. Trying to become someone else entirely.
And wondering why it never quite fits.
The Three Types of Strategic Friction
In my work, I’ve found that Strategic Friction shows up in three distinct forms. Understanding which one is operating changes everything.
1. Identity Friction
This is when your strategy requires you to be someone you’re not.
The positioning looks right. The offer makes sense. The numbers should work. But when you try to execute, something breaks down. Not because the strategy is wrong, but because it demands a version of you that isn’t sustainable.
You’ve built a business for who you think you should be, not who you actually are.
Signs of Identity Friction:
- Your marketing feels performative, like you’re playing a character
- You dread the work your business requires, even though you chose it
- Success in your business would require you to become someone you don’t want to be
- You keep redesigning your offers because nothing quite fits
- You’re exhausted by clients, even good ones
The person you’re trying to become doesn’t exist. But the person you actually are does. And there’s a business that fits them perfectly. You’re just not building it.
2. Reality Friction
This is when your strategy is built on assumptions your life can’t support.
The plan makes sense in theory. But it requires time you don’t have, energy you can’t sustain, or resources that aren’t actually available. You keep making plans based on optimistic capacity rather than actual capacity.
Signs of Reality Friction:
- Your plans consistently take 3x longer than you estimate
- You’re always behind on the things that matter most
- Your best ideas stay trapped in “someday” because there’s never enough time
- You feel guilty about what you’re not doing, even when you’re working hard
- The business requires more of you than you can sustainably give
The numbers don’t lie. But you keep negotiating with them, hoping this time will be different. It won’t be. Not until the plan matches reality instead of fighting it.
3. Permission Friction
This is when you know exactly what to do but won’t let yourself do it.
The move is obvious. You’ve seen it clearly for months. Maybe years. But something keeps stopping you from actually making it. Not knowledge. Not capability. Something else.
Signs of Permission Friction:
- You’ve had the same “breakthrough” multiple times but nothing changes
- You keep gathering more information before you’ll act
- You know what you’d tell a friend in your situation, but won’t take your own advice
- You’re waiting for something to happen before you can do the thing
- The resistance feels physical, almost allergic
This isn’t about discipline or motivation. You’re not giving yourself permission to be who you already are. And until you understand why, no amount of strategy will change anything.
Why This Stays Invisible
Here’s the uncomfortable part.
You can’t diagnose your own Strategic Friction. Not reliably. Not completely.
It’s like trying to see your own blind spot. The whole point is that it’s invisible to you. Your brain has constructed an elaborate system to keep you from seeing it clearly.
That’s not weakness. That’s just how humans work.
We’re meaning-making machines. When something doesn’t work, we create explanations that feel true: “I need better marketing.” “I need more discipline.” “I need the right framework.”
These explanations protect us from seeing the real issue, which is almost always more uncomfortable than the surface problem.
This is why you can read all the right books, do all the right courses, hire all the right people, and still stay stuck. You’re solving the wrong problem with increasing sophistication.
The tactics aren’t wrong. They’re just being applied to something that isn’t actually broken.
What Happens When Strategic Friction Clears?
When the real constraint becomes visible, things change.
Not because you suddenly have new information. But because you stop wasting energy fighting a problem that isn’t the problem.
Decisions speed up. Not because you get better at making them, but because the conflict that was blocking commitment dissolves.
Execution becomes reliable. Plans stop resetting. Follow-through becomes normal instead of exceptional.
The business starts to fit. You stop building around who you think you should be and start building around what you can actually sustain.
This isn’t transformation theatre. It’s clarity. And clarity, it turns out, is most of what’s missing.
The Test
Here’s a question that tends to reveal which friction type is operating:
Think about the last three times you overhauled your strategy. Changed your positioning. Restructured your offers. Reset your systems.
Did anything actually change underneath? Or did the same patterns keep showing up in new forms?
If you keep circling the same issues with different vocabulary, the problem isn’t the tactics. The problem is something structural that the tactics can’t reach.
You’re not broken. You don’t need fixing.
You need to see what’s actually operating so you can build something that works with it, not against it.
Where This Leaves You
If you’ve read this far, something probably landed.
Maybe you recognised yourself in one of the friction types. Maybe you’re already arguing with the parts that hit closest to home. Both responses tell you something.
You have a choice now.
You can take this framework and use it to examine your own patterns. Ask yourself honestly which friction type is operating. Look at your business decisions, your repeated strategies, your consistent stalls. See what you see.
Some people can do this work on their own. The framework gives you language for something you’ve been sensing but couldn’t name. That might be enough.
Or you might want someone outside your system to look at it with you.
That’s what the Strategic Friction Diagnostic is designed for. 90 minutes to surface the constraint that’s actually operating, not the one you think is the problem. You get a map of what’s really happening and a brief on what to do about it.
Not a programme. Not ongoing coaching. Just diagnostic clarity.
If you want that, you can access the full brief below.
It explains exactly how the diagnostic works, what you receive, and how to book.
The Diagnostic Brief
I've written a complete breakdown of how Strategic Friction gets diagnosed and what happens when the real constraint becomes visible.
The actual methodology, laid out so you can understand the process and decide if this work is relevant for you.
What's inside:
- How the diagnostic session works: the "Empty Chair" approach that starts with your patterns, not a model
- What you receive: your Strategic Friction Map and 30-90 Day Alignment Brief
- What tends to shift: when the mismatch is finally visible, decisions speed up, execution becomes reliable, the business starts to fit. Read extended case studies from real client sessions.
- Logistics: The investment, the process, and how to book
Access The Diagnostic Brief
Enter your first name and email address below to receive access to the brief.
I'm Mark Austin. I work with entrepreneurs who know what to do but can't seem to do it. Most have already spent thousands on programmes and coaches.
They don't need more tactics. They need to see what's actually in the way.
I've trained across coaching, consulting, and therapy, but I don't practise any of them in isolation.
Twenty-five years building businesses. Fifteen working with founders on strategy and execution. Thousands of hours in conversations most advisors never have.
The work sits where those disciplines meet: commercial reality, psychological structure, and the questions that don't resolve cleanly.
That's where friction lives. That's where this work operates.
When you're ready, the chair is waiting.