Joanna* coaches emerging and mid-level managers in corporate America. She helps them avoid burnout by overcoming toxic cultures. Her motto is: “Craft your corporate career and take back control.”

For the past nine months, Joanna has held online, monthly Craft Workshops focused on the six pillars of her signature system. They are very successful. Last month, more than 50 people showed up live, and her enrollment numbers topped 100. While holding these workshops, her email list has gone from 150 to 3500.

From the outside, Joanna is killing it.

On the inside, however, Joanna feels that she has come to a complete standstill and is considering quitting the whole thing. When we had our Accelerator Call, she was a jumble of conflicting confusion.

Untangle Your Thoughts and Find The Path Forward

I started the call by asking her to give me a download about where things stand.

“I’m happy about the workshops, but I’m not sure how that becomes an actual income. I get a few clients from them, but it’s nowhere near enough to quit my corporate job. I know I may need to charge more, but I also don’t want to out-price the people I’m here to help.

Plus, before I do all that, I really need to update my website again; I regret the brand colors I chose… I think they are too cheery for today’s world.

Plus, who knows how Trump is going to be with small businesses? And what about the economy, Ukraine, climate change, and the Middle East peace crisis? This world is a hot mess.

This is not a game to me. I have to feed my family. Sometimes, I wonder if I ever should have gone down this path. What if I lose what little stability we have? All for the promise of… what? What am I even doing, Amanda?”

Joanna was almost crying by the end, and I didn’t blame her. She was trying so hard to do the right thing all the time for everyone… but lately, the “next right thing” wasn’t obvious. Instead, she was overwhelmed and confused, bringing her efforts to build something important (her Great Work) to a screeching halt.

Joanna first needed to parse her thoughts into those that could help her and those fixated on worries outside her control. To help her do this, I introduced her to the Bright Spots, Broken Windows, and Black Holes framework.

Bright Spots Light the Way

When it comes to staying focused on what matters and keeping your Great Work afloat amid chaos, the most fruitful thoughts are those focused on what works.

This can be hard to believe, as our mind loves to fixate on solving problems… every problem. Instead, a Bright Spots Analysis encourages us to ignore most of the mid-level “problems” for now and focus on capitalizing on already existing health in the system.

We don’t always need a new, shiny strategy to get better results.

Joanna’s monthly, free, online workshop strategy is hardly new. In fact, if you were looking at the “market,” you might have advised her against starting an online workshop series right now. “Zoom fatigue is real,” you might say. “And only 30% of people who register show up live!”

All valid concerns, and yet… isn’t Joanna glad she didn’t listen?

When something is working, it’s rarely because you’ve hit on some new, uncharted blue-water strategy. Instead, a strategy works because it works for you! You like it, you do it with enthusiasm, and it presents you in a good light. Because you enjoy it, you try new things, learn more about it, and connect with other people who do similar things. This makes your work better. All of this catches more people’s attention, generating even more success.

Most of this chain of causality is invisible to the person with the winning strategy. It happens subconsciously. But that doesn’t stop it from working. It turns out that even without knowing why, simply leaning into things that work will make them work better.
How to do a Bright Spot Analysis

Pick an area of your work that’s going well. Don’t worry about being too obvious, we are often blind to our bright spots, assuming that everyone is good at what comes easily to us. Not so. If you are great with people in 1:1 conversation, analyze that. If you are organized and systematized with an SOP for every process, analyze that.
Look into why it’s working. Start asking what people think, download reports, and determine how it affects your numbers. Don’t be afraid of scraping some data! You can look into saved chats from Zoom calls, do a calendar audit, or look at completed tasks in your to-do list. Sometimes, the answer is right there, but we’re just not looking at it.
Build on what you find. As you find insights about what’s working, make concrete, actionable plans to lean in. If you discover that you are working on what works in the morning when you are fresh, carve more time out of the morning. If you discover that people love when you talk about your childhood, consider doing more of that. And if you discover that TikTok is outperforming all other social media channels put together, shift your resources. You’ll do this naturally, but if you push yourself to ask, “How can I get more of this easily?” for each insight, you’ll get more impact from your analysis.

The first insight that regularly comes out of a Bright Spot Analysis is the reminder that things are good. Lots of people are really blind to their bright spots! It’s very common for people to enter a call convinced that everything is failing, and then, simply by sharing their wins and their theories about what’s working, they cheer themselves up.

Joanna was surprised to remember that she had conducted 12 webinars in 9 months. “That’s a lot!” she said. “I’ve been really consistent!” She also went back and checked her enrollment, which has steadily increased from 12 at her first to almost 120 at her most recent. “It’s so nice to remind myself of those numbers!” she said.

This simple reminder can turn your whole attitude around. You ARE doing successful things, people like your work (and you!), and you’ve learned a lot along the way. Also, when you look at all those checked boxes on the to-do list going back pages and pages (or screens and screens if you’re an Asana or Trello user), you are very likely to realize that you aren’t such a procrastinator after all.

Often, things aren’t as bad as they seem, and it’s well worth the time to remind yourself of that fact. A Bright Spot Analysis provides excellent evidence for this.

A Bright Spot analysis will also suggest concrete ideas about what to do next. When Joanna and I looked at the chats saved from her webinars, we saw a lot of themes to capitalize on. People regularly commented that Joanna was fun, funny, and friendly. Participants also said that Joanna “gave them hope for their future when everything else felt like doom and gloom.” Joanna realized that instead of trying to match the world’s down-and-out vibe, she succeeded because of her relentless optimism and practical strategies.

Indeed, upon reflection, Joanna realized that the clients she had enrolled in the workshops had all commented on how great she was at acknowledging the dark side of toxic work environments while not accepting that darkness when they could improve their experience. “That’s just me,” Joanna explained. “It’s what I honestly believe. Why be miserable? If you can make things better for yourself, you should. If you can’t, then you should leave. I was just being… myself.”

She is advised to be herself as often as possible to leverage this success.

A Bright Spots analysis provides clear, actionable, achievable ideas that are highly likely to result in greater success because they are grounded in what already works. For the same reason, however, these improvements will always be incremental. Therefore, if you want to transform your business and have the most significant impact possible, you must turn your attention to your Broken Windows.

For more information on Bright Spot Analysis, see Chapter 2 of the book Switch, How to Change Things When Change Is Hard.

Broken Windows Set Our Priorities

The Broken Window Theory is actually a theory from criminology. The research involved parking two almost identical cars overnight on the same street a few weeks apart. The only difference between the cars was– you guessed it– one car had a broken window.

The car with the broken window was stripped clean of all its valuable parts overnight. The car without the broken window was untouched the next morning. In short, if there are visible signs of disorder in an environment (like a broken window), it encourages more crime.

When we apply this theory to personal development, the “crimes” we encourage are crimes against the self—crimes like procrastination, avoidance, perfectionism, denial, imposter syndrome, and giving up on something that matters.

As something becomes a Broken Window, we start to give up on it—but not in a clear-sighted, letting go of what serves us kind of way. Instead, we avoid it, and if anyone asks us about it, we deny that we’ve given up. And then, like the proverbial car with a broken window, our denial and avoidance allow it to sink further into disrepair.

Where a Bright Spots analysis gives you a clear picture of how to capitalize on what’s already working, Broken Windows shows you which problems need your immediate attention.

Joanna’s download very clearly identified her Broken Window.

She’s not selling.

She hopes new clients will chase her down and offer to pay her money. It’s a testament to her incredible skills that a few of them have done just that! But then she charged them so little that she’s not sure it’s worth it.

Joanna is so deeply uncomfortable with selling that she’s allowed it to become a Broken Window in her business. You can tell because all the truly knotty problems are bunched up around it. She doesn’t want to sell, she doesn’t want to charge a higher rate, she shames herself for leaving people behind, she’s stressed about what it means to her family if she can’t pull this off, and (most clearly) she’s not making enough money.

In our Accelerator call, this is where we landed: Until Joanna began to sort out her aversion to sales, she wasn’t allowed to update her website, buy any new courses on building an audience, or create video content. Also, she had to find someone to help her. (She asked me to help her, and I agreed. But whether she worked with me or someone else, she had to address it directly!)

In short, it was time to address this head-on. Like the car with a broken window, she was inviting too much chaos into her business by avoiding it.

The caveat to identifying and addressing Broken Windows is that sometimes it’s hard to discriminate them from the multitude of other, less impactful problems that you could solve. Broken Windows are uniquely powerful and high-leverage because they are central to your Great Work, they attract other problems, and when you solve them, your Great Work comes into greater alignment.

Not every problem holds this status; a Broken Window is a rare and important opportunity.

It’s not true that every business even has a Broken Window! I would say that other than little crises (like my website going down because of a technology glitch), I haven’t had a truly Broken Window in my business since 2018. Heed my warning and be discriminating to avoid making things into Broken Windows. Instead, recognize that many of your most relentless concerns may be better categorized as Black Holes.

Broken Windows are often indicative of mindset issues. Watch my TEDx talk “Three Reasons You Aren’t Doing What You Said You Would Do” to hear more about this.

Black Holes Suck the Life Out of You (and Your Great Work)

While broken windows show you where your efforts will have the most significant impact, Black Holes reveal where you are pouring your attention without a discernible effect. Black Holes include endlessly relitigating decisions you’ve already made, analyzing past regrets, obsessing over future scenarios, and falling into the doom scroll of world events. The core strategies here (taking care with our decisions, learning from mistakes, anticipating outcomes, and being informed about world events) aren’t Black Holes; it’s when these strategies take on an exponential gravity, directing your attention without your conscious consent, that they become Black Holes.

Black Holes, at their core, are distractions.

Really powerful, convincing, captivating distractions, but distractions nonetheless. Black Holes are insidious because they grab at you. They prey on your emotional response and corrupt your best strategies by overwhelming your mind. If you aren’t careful, they can suck the life out of you and derail your Great Work for good.

Black Holes that derail Great Work fall into three categories.

1. Relitigating Your Decisions.

If you are thinking about, for example, starting a Substack, or writing a book, or taking a class, but months go by, and all you’ve done is think about it, you might be relitigating. This is where you make the same decision over and over again. It’s perplexing because you think about it ALL. THE. TIME. but nothing ever gets resolved. This Black Hole is the clearest example of how we can spend an incredible amount of time and attention on something that gets us exactly nowhere.

When you find yourself relitigating a decision, remind yourself of this psychological nugget: People always try to like their decisions before making them. We want a guarantee that we are making the right choice, have considered every eventuality, and are on the right track. This is a lost cause that leads to massive, repetitive relitigation.

Instead, try this affirmation: “I make my choice and then I will learn to like it.

Joanna’s brand colors are a great example of this. Her job at this point is not to re-decide what her brand colors should be, but instead, it is to learn to love the choice she already made. The good news is that her audience loves her positivity, and her brand colors reflect that. But even if they didn’t- she’s still better off living with the decision she already made.

2a. Time Travelling: Looking Back

While it can be useful to seek insight from past experiences, the strategy of looking backward to learn can quickly become a Black Hole of regret. No matter how often we wish something had gone another way, there’s simply zero practical value in wishing things were different.

They aren’t. They won’t be. It already is what it already is.

Here’s your mantra: Time only goes in one direction.

Joanna was stuck in a Black Hole about whether she should have started her business. She wasn’t trying to decide how to pivot her business (which is different) or whether to shut it down now, but rather whether– two years ago— it had been a mistake to hang up her shingle.

The truth is: It doesn’t matter if it was a mistake. What matters is what she will do now.

It’s better to be fully, entirely, and deeply accepting that what has happened is over and refocus on how to be happy and productive (or at least present!) in the present.

2b. Time Travelling: What if?

There is a lot of value in considering possible outcomes. But, like all black holes, which have their basis in valuable strategies, you must ensure that it doesn’t overwhelm your thinking.

If your mind is running forward, tripping over itself, examining every possible outcome (most of them bad!), your strategy has gotten the better of you and has turned into a Black Hole of anticipatory worry.

Here’s your mantra: Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you.

Instead, on a baseline level, trust yourself to navigate any possible future. Not necessarily gracefully or with great diplomacy, but with integrity and honor.

3. World Events

It is important to regulate your consumption of media. It’s not just teenagers who are negatively impacted by the obsessive, divisive, hostile, swirling rhetoric.

While I agree it is important to be informed, it’s just way too easy to become obsessed, addicted, and consumed instead.

And please, make no mistake: no matter what side you are on, the voices that establish the conversation are actively, intentionally, and purposefully attempting to manipulate you. They have meetings where the agenda items are “How do we get more people to donate on Giving Tuesday.” Then they quite literally turn to the same set of propaganda tactics used by every fascist regime since Nazi Germany.

They hide behind algorithms and dress it up in righteous indignation, democracy, or capitalism, but the tactics are identical. And it’s not “the other side” that’s doing it. Every single organization, media company, political campaign, and marketing department is doing this.

They make every funding deadline a national crisis, they tell you only heartbreaking one-sided stories to activate your amygdala so you can’t be critically minded, and they prey on your worst instincts to get you to buy things.

Is this what you choose to expose yourself to voluntarily?

The difference between true fascist regimes and our opportunistic neo-propagandist society is that we really CAN opt out. We can redirect our attention away from the Black Holes of social media, news websites, and Reddit and focus on the present moment, our families and friends, and our Great Work.

And when world events rise up and punch your values in the face, trust me, you won’t miss it. Just because you aren’t obsessed and addicted to the news feed doesn’t mean you won’t go to a protest, write letters, or stand up for a neighbor when a Broken Window emerges and needs to be faced.

You will.

In fact, not being in the frenzied flow of the World Events Black Hole, reacting to every outrage and roiling with disbelief at every transgression will make you better able to respond to the genuine Broken Windows that will arise. You don’t need to be fully informed on every detail to be a responsible citizen.

Here are a few mantras to be repeated to yourself when a propaganda tactic lands in your inbox, messages app, or on a billboard across the street:

“No, thank you. I don’t accept your offer to panic over this.”

Or: “Rejected. Go bother someone else.”

Or: “I don’t give my attention to people trying to manipulate me.”

I know how challenging this can be, but I am 100% convinced it’s the sanest, most responsible way to engage with world events.

And, not for nothing, it protects your Great Work from being derailed by events you can’t control or even impact.

This is what I told Joanna. It’s what I tell myself.

Managing Your Thoughts Will Set Your Great Work Free

Whew. What started as a quick newsletter has become a 3300-word guide.

Thanks for hanging in there!

Doing Great Work can be challenging under any circumstances. Add to that shifting politics, global unrest, and threats to democracy, and it can feel very reasonable to put things on hold until things “get back to normal.”

Unfortunately, we’ve been waiting on normal for a long time now.

It really doesn’t seem to be coming back.

Normal, like Elvis, has left the building.

As such, we had better figure out how to do our Great Work in extraordinary times.

Getting clear about our Great Work and taking regular steps towards it despite what’s happening “out there” is the path forward.

Understanding and managing your thoughts using this framework will help you do that.

If you would like to work with me directly to help you parse your thoughts and get your Great Work back on track, reach out!

You can schedule a complimentary breakthrough call here and read more about my coaching here.

How To Focus Your Attention On Your Great Work Even As The World Does Its Best To Distract You