If you’re feeling stuck despite your best efforts and capabilities, I want you to know something important: you’re not alone, and it’s not your fault.

Feeling stuck can be confusing and frustrating, especially when you’ve tried many things and still don’t see progress.

What if the reason you feel stuck isn’t because you’re lacking effort or ability, but because of invisible boundaries inside your mind?

In this post, I’m going to introduce you to the concept of the mindset feasible region — an insightful analogy borrowed from engineering and mathematical optimization that can help you understand exactly why you feel stuck.

Together, we’ll explore what this feasible region is, how it shapes what feels possible in your life, and practical steps you can take to shift it. This is a foundational piece in my mindset engineering approach designed to help you get unstuck.

Understanding the Feasible Region — An Engineering Metaphor

In engineering and mathematical optimization, the feasible region is the set of all possible solutions that satisfy the constraints of a problem. Think of a feasible region like a planter box in a garden—once you choose its size and shape, you’re limited to grow and nurture plants within those boundaries.

Let’s apply this concept to your mindset: your internal mindset constraints — the beliefs, assumptions, fears, and unspoken “rules” you carry — create your own personal feasible region. This region defines which goals, outcomes, and actions feel possible or realistic to you right now.

The good news? In gardening, you can change the size and shape of your planter box if you decide to have more plants. Similarly, your mindset constraints aren’t fixed — they can be adjusted to create more space as you set and update your goals.

How the Mindset Feasible Region Explains Feeling Stuck

When your goals fall outside of your mindset feasible region, you feel stuck.

This explains common stuck feelings:

• You take action but it doesn’t lead to progress
• You know what needs to be done but can’t seem to start.
• You feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or paralyzed despite wanting to move forward.
  

All of these feelings aren’t the result of laziness or personal failure. It’s about a mismatch between your mindset’s boundaries and where you want to go. You feel this way simply because your ideas about what action to take (and any actions that you’ve taken) fit your current mindset constraints, and your current feasible region (created by those constraints) doesn’t include your goal.

For example, when you

• You take action but it doesn’t lead to progress

• There is at least one mindset constraint that is preventing you from taking the action(s) that will move things forward.

• You know what needs to be done but can’t seem to start.

• There is at least one mindset constraint that is preventing you from having the confidence to take action.

• You feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or paralyzed despite wanting to move forward.

• There is one mindset constraint that is preventing you from seeing clear steps forward.

Mindset Engineering — Shifting Your Feasible Region

Mindset engineering is my unique approach combining precise, analytical thinking with compassion. It helps identify and shift these mindset constraints to expand or reshape your feasible region.

Rather than force change, mindset engineering invites you to:

• Identify the mindset constraints shaping your feasible region
• Approach each of these constraints with curiosity and kindness — gently questioning whether they’re helping or holding you back from reaching your goal, without judgment.
• Reframe or relax these constraints with well-engineered affirmations
• Take action inspired by your new feasible region and make progress towards your goals (and repeat as needed)

This process offers clarity, and momentum to help you get unstuck.

Moving Forward — Tools and Community to Help You Understand Your Feasible Region and Get Unstuck

The great news is by understanding your feasible region you can identify steps to move forward.

If you want personalized insight on your mindset constraints and feasible region, I invite you to explore the Get Unstuck Mindset Map — a tool designed to help you uncover what’s holding you back and help you identify new pathways forward.

Exploring your feasible region isn’t necessary until you have a clear goal. If you’d like help getting crystal clear on your goal by identifying what’s truly necessary and sufficient to call it a success. I recommend checking out my free tool, Spec It Out, to gain clarity and define your path forward.

In addition, I would love for you to join the r/SmartCapableStuck community, where fellow smart, capable people explore mindset shifts, get unstuck and support each other.

If you want to learn more about feasible regions, and the larger mindset engineering approach,  I invite you to watch my video Get Clear on Why You Are Stuck (An Unconventional Approach from a PhD Engineer), where I share examples that show how understanding and shifting your feasible region can help you move forward.