72. Why You Keep Freezing Every Time You're About to Do the Thing You Actually Want

About this episode

This episode explores the freeze response that occurs when trying to pursue goals and how to overcome it.

You know what you want to do. You've known for a while. You think about it constantly, you've planned it out in your head, and then the moment you go to actually make it real — you go blank. You switch tasks. You suddenly need a snack. You clean your entire bathroom instead. Your nervous system playing 4D chess babe — already seven steps ahead, already forecasting every way this could go wrong, already deciding that the slow dull ache of never doing the thing is safer than the risk of being seen, judged, or abandoned on the other side of it. In this episode I break down exactly what's happening in your body when you freeze — and what it actually takes to move through it. In this episode: Why the freeze response has nothing to do with capability or confidence — and everything to do with what your nervous system believes will happen if you succeed The four questions to ask yourself about the goal you keep shelving — and why the answers will finally make your freezing make sense The sentence to say out loud that will tell you exactly where your fear is living ("I will never take action on ___ because I fear ___") Why this was never about the action — it was always about…

People in this episode

Host: Chelsea Bartell-Smith

Topics covered

• freeze response
• nervous system
• goal setting
• fear of success
• personal growth

Keywords

• freeze response
• nervous system
• goal achievement
• fear of judgment
• personal development

More episodes of Courageously Expressed | Post-Traumatic Purpose Reclamation

• 71. What Happens When You Flight-Response, High-Achieve, and Resilient-to-a-Fault Your Way Into Burnout · May 7, 2026 · 45 min
• 70. "She Read It Out Loud for the First Time Ever" — Lexie on Shaking Hands, Survival Patterns, and the Book She Almost Didn't Write · March 28, 2026 · 57 min
• 69. "I Googled My Own Symptoms Because I Thought Something Was Wrong With My Brain" · March 18, 2026 · 44 min
• 68. I Was Pulling the Rope. My Body Was Pulling Back Harder. · March 6, 2026 · 41 min
• 67. What If Your 'Disorder' Is Just Unprocessed Genius? · February 3, 2026 · 30 min
• 66. Who TF Am I Beyond My Trauma? · January 16, 2026 · 15 min