UnstuckI’m glad that Dan suggested I test out and review the Unstuck app because I used it with a client a couple days ago, and it led to some interesting discoveries.

What is Unstuck? It’s an app to help you get past those times in your life when you’re ‘stuck.’ Thinking you need to change jobs, and you just can’t get motivated to do it? Frustrated about some aspect of a relationship, and you’re not sure what to do about it? That’s where the app comes in.

Now, as a professional coach, I have to add this disclaimer. The app is OK as far as it goes, but for big problems that are significantly impacting your life, it’s not a replacement for the services of someone like me.

That said, the app has much to recommend it.

It starts out by asking you to define how you feel in the moment.

Unstuck

It’s a good question, because sometimes we don’t sit down to specify exactly how we’re feeling in a particular moment. Our emotions are there to guide and help us, but if we don’t acknowledge them, they just get in the way.

The next step is defining your stuck moment. I like this because its always helpful to get our “stuckness” out of our head and into writing.

Then they move on to a bunch of cards to help you define how you are thinking about your stuck moment. Again, a good approach because it helps to narrow down exactly why you’re stuck. Without that, anything you’d try would be shooting blind.

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After you’ve completed the assessment, the app suggests a way you’re acting. When I ran through this with my client, it said she was acting like a “Reluctant Adopter,” which she said pretty much nailed how she was acting. So it works, although you do need to keep in mind that, like many assessments, lots of different “roles” could also apply, which is why I say it can’t replace the services of a trained coach or counselor. For example, “Lone Leader,” the role in the screen shot below, could also describe my client perfectly.

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Once the app has finished its assessment, and you’ve agreed that it fits, it will suggest a tool to try to get you unstuck. The tools are the weakest part of the app. I tried the app myself, and while I found the assessment to be spot on, its tool suggestion was weak at best. My client observed the same thing. However, we did come to an interesting discovery with my client. The tool suggested that she run her proposed course of action past several trusted advisers. When she was listing her advisers, she said she realized she didn’t have any friends she could trust. She’d known this about herself for a while, but she’d never said it to anyone. As you can imagine, we had a good conversation around that subject!

While it is well enough designed that users could find value in it (especially by forcing them to write down and specify their issues) I actually think I like it better as a tool I can use with clients. The app leaves you on your own to take action on their suggestions, and many people know what they need to do. What they really need is support to actually do it, and the app doesn’t give much help in that area.

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