Why You Keep Fixing the Wrong Problem (and How to Stop)
How to Diagnose What's Really Holding You Back and Do Something About It
Going Nowhere
Ever feel like no matter how hard you run at that wall, all you ever do is bounce off?
You fix a problem, you make some progress, you feel great for maybe a week. But before you know it, you end up right back where you started. I saw a clip this week of someone who asked ChatGPT to help them determine how many calories they’d expended on their daily treadmill run. But, according to our AI lord and master, because the treadmill didn’t actually go anywhere, they burned a whopping zero calories.
Growth can be like that sometimes. Running as hard as you can, expending every bit of energy you have, only to find that you’ve got nothing to show for it.
But the reason you’re feeling stuck isn’t because you’re not working hard enough. At least, not usually, in my experience. Chances are, you’re stuck because you’re solving the wrong problem. You’re trying to get the treadmill to go somewhere instead of solving the caloric equation differently, to carry the metaphor onward.
Here’s the bottom line: If you keep fixing the wrong thing, no matter how good your solution is, you won’t get lasting change.
Most people don't struggle with effort. They struggle with direction.
I was working with a client recently—we’ll call him Michael—who came to me frustrated about his productivity. He’d tried everything I’d thrown at him: time blocking, the Pomodoro technique, setting up his environment for success, adjusting his sleep and morning routines. The whole coach’s toolbox. He had a shelf full of books on how to be more productive (many of which I’d recommended) and an inbox full of efficiency hacks.
But he was still overwhelmed and feeling behind.
When I asked him to walk me through a typical day in the life, something interesting showed up. His issue wasn’t time management at all. It was a lack of clarity around his priorities. He was constantly doing, but only what presented itself immediately to him, with no framework for evaluating what tasks were pointing him in the right direction and which ones needed to be delegated or killed to prevent drag. He was spreading his attention across too many projects and not fully entrusting his team to get things done without him when necessary.
No productivity in the world would have solved that problem. The real issue wasn’t about managing his time. It was about determining what deserved his time.
This happens more often than you might think, even with high performing leaders. When I dig deep with my coaching clients, I consistently find that they’re pouring energy into fixing problems that aren’t the source of their stagnation.
3 Reasons You Keep Fixing the Wrong Thing
1. You’re treating symptoms, not causes.
Think about the last time you had a headache. What did you do? If you’re like me, you popped an Advil and kept going. That’s the natural way to deal with a random headache.
But what if the headache came back every day for a month? At some point, you’d hopefully realize that the headache itself wasn’t the problem. It’s a symptom of something deeper.
So many times in our work and personal lives, we find ourselves popping our daily Advil instead of figuring out why the pain keeps returning.
You think you have a productivity problem, so you download another app, but the real issue is that you’re saying yes to things that aren’t moving you in the right direction.
You think your team has a communication problem, so you schedule more meetings (or add another platform to the tech stack), but the real issue is lack of organizational clarity around priorities.
You think you have a motivation problem, so you scroll through an hour of motivational TikToks (hopefully including some of mine), but the real issue is that you’re burned out and need to manage your energy better.
We like to attack symptoms because they’re loud. They scream for our attention. Meanwhile, the underlying causes are so quiet that they’re easy to miss. Especially when we’re busy fighting fires. And we love fighting fires, don’t we!
2. You’re avoiding uncomfortable truths
Some problems are more comfortable than others.
It’s easier to say “I have the wrong team” than “I need to improve my management skills.”
It’s less scary to say “I need a better hook,” than “I need a better message.”
It’s far more comfortable to say, “I need to work on my productivity,” than “I am on the wrong path.”
Have you ever worked for somebody who kept implementing new tools, convinced that better “organization” or “tracking” would solve their team’s lack of progress? Have you ever noticed that what’s often happening behind the scenes is a fundamental lack of trust? I’ve seen it more times than I’d like to admit.
Often, when an ineffective organization is trying to solve the problem of productivity, their problem is actually leadership.
But we all do this. We gravitate toward the problems that seem fixable, problems where the solution fits firmly within the realm of the known (and thereby, the comfortable). But while we are doing this, the real issues, which would require us to engage with our identity, admit failure, or step into the unknown, remain unaddressed.
3. You're measuring progress the wrong way
I know I wrote a whole post about this a couple weeks back, but it slots into this problem as well.
Do you remember the Wells Fargo scandal of 2018? I do, primarily because I was still working for their competitor, JPMorgan Chase, at the time. Wells Fargo came under fire because it came to light that their employees had opened millions of unauthorized accounts. And why did this happen? The bank had imposed aggressive sales goals, which is a normal practice of a healthy sales-based organization. The only problem was, the only measure of success was the number of new accounts opened. Regardless of whether or not a new account was the right solution for the customer. I’ve seen a variation of this same thing at every sales company I’ve ever worked for. We used to call it “lever-pulling,” meaning you get hyper-focused on the one thing that’s going to drive an apparent result regardless of whether it’s aligned with values, mission or ongoing success. When we measure the wrong things, we start optimizing for the wrong outcomes. And when we optimize for the wrong outcomes, we keep solving the wrong problems.
But before we all get too high and mighty about corporate mistakes, let’s look closer to home. Have you ever measured your career success by your title or salary, even if those things didn’t reflect what you really wanted? Have you ever had a relationship crumble because you were so focused on winning arguments that you lost connection to what you really loved about the person? Have you ever had a fitness journey stall out because you were too busy looking at the number on the scale instead of measuring your strength, energy or consistency? I can say yes to all of those, and I would bet you can to at least one of them.
See, when what we measure is misaligned with our actual goals (often because we don’t take the time to set actual goals), we end up optimizing for the wrong things. When we optimize for the wrong things, we end up solving the wrong problems.
And when we solve the wrong problems, nothing really changes.
A 3-Question Framework: Find Your Real Problem
Here’s the truth: You can’t fix what you can’t define. And if you’ve been fixing the wrong problem, it’s almost surely because you haven’t asked the right questions yet. Let’s change that. If you don’t spell out the right problem, every solution you try will feel like a band aid. So here’s how you can uncover what’s actually holding you back. It’s a really simple framework that I’ve been using with my coaching clients when we can’t seem to get to the heart of what’s going on.
Question 1: "What's the biggest thing stressing me out right now?"
Start with the surface-level stress. Stress is something we all understand. Don’t analyze it or judge it. Just identify the pain point that’s making the most noise in your life. What’s the thing that’s keeping you up at night or distracting you during the day?
If you remember Michael, my client from earlier, his answer was, “ I never finish what I planned to get done by the end of the day. My to-do list keeps growing instead of shrinking.”
The question seems obvious, but that’s for a reason. It gives you permission to get the obvious frustration out into the open. It’s like defrosting your windshield in the morning. You can’t see the road ahead until you get the obvious barrier out of the way.
Question 2: "What problem do I think I have?"
Once you’ve got the obvious frustration out into the light of day, check in with your current diagnosis. What do you currently believe is the source of your frustration?
Michael’s answer was “I have have poor time management skills, and I’m too easily distracted.”
This is only a working theory. Most of us stop right here and start jumping to solutions around our first diagnosis. We buy books, take online courses and implement systems designed to fix what appears to be the problem.
But if you stop here, you’ll miss out. The most important question is still to come.
Question 3: "If that problem magically disappeared overnight, what would still be left standing in the way?"
This is the magic question, right here. If your hypothesized problem vanished completely, if you suddenly had perfect time management or focus or whatever it was you identified in question 2, would something still be in your way? Would something be unresolved? Would you still feel “off?”
When I asked Michael this question, he paused for a long time. Then, eventually, he admitted, “Even if I got everything done, I’m not sure if I would know what—if anything—was moving the needle.”
And that was the real problem. Not efficiency, but priority.
Here’s another example:
Stress: "I keep procrastinating on launching my business/content channel."
Perceived Problem: "I lack discipline and motivation."
Deeper Check: "If I suddenly had perfect discipline, would anything still be in the way?"
Real Problem: "Yes—because I'm afraid of putting myself out there and failing publicly. It's not a discipline issue; it's a fear issue."
Or this one:
Stress: "I can't seem to stick with my fitness routine beyond a few weeks."
Perceived Problem: "I lack willpower and discipline to exercise consistently."
Deeper Check: "If I suddenly had iron-clad willpower, would that solve everything?"
Real Problem: "Not really. The deeper issue is that I'm trying to force myself into workouts I don't enjoy because I think that's what I 'should' do, instead of finding physical activity that energizes me and fits naturally into my life."
Or, a common one, around finances:
Stress: "I never seem to have enough money at the end of the month."
Perceived Problem: "I need to make more money or create a stricter budget."
Deeper Check: "If my income doubled tomorrow, would my financial stress disappear?"
Real Problem: "Probably not. The real issue is that I'm using spending as a way to deal with work stress and social or relationship pressure. No matter how much I make, I'll likely increase my spending to match unless I address my relationship with money and status."
Do you see how different the diagnoses are? The solution to “lack of discipline” might be accountability systems or habit trackers (both of which are things that I strongly support). But the real solution to “fear of failure” is addressing the way you believe about yourself, checking where you have created your own ceilings and learning how to be vulnerable.
Same stress points, completely different problems, totally different solutions.
The reason that this framework is effective is that it forces you to look through and past the obvious pain points and into the underlying systems and beliefs that are creating them. It’s the difference between treating a symptom and curing a disease.
When you identify the real problem, solutions that seemed impossible, impractical or that you simply would never have thought of become obvious. Friction gives way to momentum.
Your Next Step: Fix the Right Problem & Break the Cycle
Now that you have a framework to help you diagnose the right problem, what’s your next move? Let me lay it out simply:
Step 1: Take 10 minutes today, and apply the 3-Question Framework
I am being literal here. Not next week, not when you “have time.” Do it today.
Grab a notebook or open a new note on your phone and work through those three questions for whatever you see as your biggest challenge.
What’s stressing me out the most?
What problem do I think I have?
If that problem disappeared tonight, what would still be in my way?
Be honest. Be brutally honest. This is a time for truth, not blind aspirational thinking. Remember, you cannot solve a problem that you can’t see clearly.
Step 2: Redefine the problem statement
Once you’ve identified the real problem, take a moment to write it out precisely. Remember, clarity is the key to fixing an awful lot of things, both organizationally and personally.
Instead of “I need better time management,” maybe it’s “I need to get clear on my top priorities and delegate or kill everything else.”
Instead of “I need more marketing,” maybe it’s “I need to figure out what problem I am actually solving for people.”
A clear problem is a compass that points toward a real solution.
Step 3: Make one small shift toward fixing the actual problem
You will notice I didn’t say “create a strategy to solve the entire problem right away.” That’s because lasting change doesn’t work that way.
Pick one small action that you can take this week that addresses the real issue, not just the symptom. Something concrete and specific. Something that you can’t fail at. Get yourself a win, no matter how easy.
If your real problem is fear of failure rather than lack of discipline, maybe your next step is scheduling a conversation with someone who’s been where you want to go, or journaling about what you’re afraid might happen if you fail.
If the problem is unclear priorities, the next step might just be to block two hours out of your schedule next week to define what “moving the needle” really looks like in whatever growth area you’ve chosen.
Small steps addressing the right problem can create more momentum than massive action that’s aimed at the wrong target.
The Hard Truth About Breaking the Cycle
I want to make sure I’m clear about something: facing your real problems will most likely be uncomfortable. There’s a reason I had to build a framework around this.
It’s way easier to blame lack of time than confront the possibility that you’re pouring energy into things that don’t align with your true purpose.
It’s less threatening to focus on posting more than to question whether you’re providing value.
It’s more comfortable to download a productivity app than have a hard conversation about trust with your team.
But in all of this, here is what I know: the discomfort of facing the real problem is temporary. The pain of repeatedly solving the wrong problem is chronic and potentially fatal.
I have seen this play out more times than I can count with my coaching clients. The moment they finally identify and address the real issue, there’s this sense of relief that’s visible. Not because the problem is instantly solved, but because they can finally see the right direction to move.
The struggle isn’t gone, and much of the hard work is still ahead, but at least now it is a purposeful struggle and the work makes sense. It’s friction, but it’s a good kind of friction—the kind that leads to a better future.
Grab my FREE Problem Reframing Worksheet here
This worksheet will walk you through this entire process step-by-step, with additional prompts and exercises to help you dig deeper and create a concrete action plan.
And hit 'Reply' to let me know: What's the biggest insight this framework helped you uncover? What real problem were you surprised to find hiding behind your symptoms?
Now go be great.
P.S. After writing all about "being stuck in the right place" last week, I was amazed by how many of you responded with your own experiences. So many of you are wrestling with similar questions about impact, alignment, and growth. It reminded me that we're all on this journey together. Sometimes the most important shifts happen when we change the questions we're asking, not just the answers we're seeking.
For paid subscribers, I've created an expanded version of the Problem Reframing Worksheet that includes additional exercises, case studies of successful problem reframes, and a video walkthrough where I coach you through the entire process.
If the worksheet helps you uncover something significant, I'd love to hear about it. Your insights often become the seeds for future newsletters and conversations in our community. DM me here or email me at andrew@ideatrainingacademy.com