One Degree to Victory is a podcast about change—why we want it, why we struggle with it, and what helps us move forward.
Hosted by Dr. Nelieta Hollis, each episode begins with a question and follows it through lived experience, thoughtful reflection, and the patterns that shape how we respond to life.
From worry, anxiety, stress, procrastination, and stagnation to the moments when we find ourselves waiting, avoiding, beginning again, or becoming something new, these conversations explore what happens between wanting change and knowing how to move toward it.
This is not motivation for motivation’s sake. It is a space to notice what is shaping you, understand the responses you have learned, and discover new possibilities for what comes next.
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Stagnation does not always look like doing nothing.
You can work, pay bills, care for other people, solve problems, and carry responsibilities all day—while remaining stagnant in the area of your life that most needs your attention.
In this final episode of the WASPS series, Dr. Hollis explores how worry, anxiety, stress, and procrastination can eventually become a pattern of no meaningful forward movement. She examines how stagnation develops within our relationships, emotions, health and well-being, and finances—and how outside conditions can consume the capacity required to move.
Stagnation is not your identity. It is the place where movement stopped.
The question is not, “How do I change my entire life today?” The question is: Where has movement stopped, which part of WASPS has been holding it there, and what is one responsible step that can begin movement again?
Subscribe, share this with someone who’s holding everything together, and leave a review if it helps. What’s one area where movement has stopped, and what one step could you take this week?
One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time.
Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
We want our lives to remain steady. We want to know that when we wake up tomorrow, the people we love will still be there. Our income will still be there. Our bodies will still cooperate, and the plans we made will still make sense. Stability is a human desire. The unintended consequence of stability is stagnation. We stop asking what needs to change and begin using all our strength to keep everything exactly where it is.
Over the last five years, I've been rebuilding. There have been a couple of stops along the way when I knew change was coming, but I was reluctant to the change because our lives have become steady and predictable. My income was steady and I was taking care of the kids, and I didn't want to mess that up with another change. And this change would be by my own hand. If I moved forward with this change and it failed, well, I just couldn't fathom putting my kids through that failure again. So I stayed a little longer than I should have. Now, constant listener, while all appeared well on the outside, I was miserable within. My mind and my emotions, my will, my intellect and imagination were suffering because I knew that I was sacrificing my vision for my family on the altar of stability. It's an unpopular opinion, isn't it? I mean, we hear many colloquialisms come to mind. Don't rock the boat. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and so many more. But constant listener, stagnation does not always look like someone is sitting on the couch doing nothing. Sometimes it looks like a woman getting up every morning, going to work, paying what she can, caring for her family, answering every call and carrying her responsibilities. From the outside, she is moving all day. She's got everything covered, but on the inside, her life has stopped moving forward. She has learned how to maintain the day, but she no longer has enough capacity left to build tomorrow. She knows the relationship is no longer healthy, but changing it could disturb the stability she has. She knows the job is draining her, but the paycheck is dependable. She knows her body has been asking for attention, but there is never a convenient time. And she knows something in her life needs to move, yet movement feels like one more risk she cannot afford. So she stays in place, sacrificing her dreams and ambitions, because standing still feels safer than disturbing what she has managed to hold together. Eventually, what she calls stability begins to feel real heavy. The same routines that she once thought of as protection begin to feel like confinement. The familiar places that were once exciting feel more like surgical waiting rooms, and she does not realize how long she has been sitting
there. That is the tension I want us to sit with in this final episode on wasps. Sometimes we become stagnant because we are trying so hard not to lose what little stability we have. Constant listener, think about water that has stopped flowing. On the surface, it looks calm except for a few bugs. Nothing is crashing, nothing is overflowing, nothing appears urgent. But underneath that stillness, except for the bugs, the condition of the water is changing because there is no circulation. That is how stagnation can settle into a life. There may be activity everywhere. You're working, caring for people, solving problems, completing the same responsibilities every day, day in and day out. Yet none of that activity is carrying you toward a decision, a different condition or the future you keep saying you want. Again, stagnation is not the absence of activity. Stagnation is the absence of meaningful forward movement. This is what separates stagnation from rest. Rest is a purposeful pause that restores your capacity to move again. Stagnation is when the pause no longer has a purpose. The waiting has no end point and later keeps moving farther and farther away.
And stagnation rarely begins with stagnation. It's often where the other parts of wasps may lead when they remain unaddressed. Worry keeps your mind circling around what might happen. Anxiety limits how much of yourself you can access in the moment. Stress overloads the capacity you need to respond. Procrastination delays the decision or action that could create the movement. Stagnation is what develops when the circling, limiting, overloading, and delaying become a pattern of not moving. The issue is no longer one worried thought, one anxious moment, one stressful week, or one delayed task. The issue is that your life has begun organizing itself around remaining where you are. You adjust to what is not changing. You lower your expectations. You stop checking for other possibilities. You learn how to function inside the same conditions, and eventually the conditions begin to feel permanent. The constant listener, sister girl, stagnation is a condition, not an identity. You may be in a stagnant place, but you are not a stagnant person. The capacity to move has not disappeared. It needs an opening, a direction, and a responsible first step. Stagnation can develop anywhere movement has repeatedly been interrupted.
It's repeating the same pattern without a new boundary, a different response, or an honest decision about what comes next, and it is not always created by a lack of desire. Sometimes our conditions within our environment repeatedly interrupt movement. Low wages, unstable housing, unreliable transportation, limited childcare, unsafe relationships, health concerns, and constant emergencies can consume the capacity we need to change our circumstances. Some of us, some of us, sister girls, are using extraordinary amounts of capacity to keep today from falling apart. So our question becomes what has been consuming the capacity required for movement and what support would make one degree of progress possible? Or you could ask yourself, what would need to shift inside ourselves with our environment or both for movement to become possible again? That is the new lens I offer you today.
Doing the same things repeatedly without creating movement toward what comes next means busyness is not proof that you are moving forward. Exhaustion is not proof that your life is changing. You can be active all day and still be stagnant in the area that most needs your attention. Has movement stopped in a decision you keep postponing, a conversation you keep rehearsing but never having? A health need you keep working around? A financial reality you keep surviving without examining, a plan you keep describing but never placing into action. Then look backward through wasps. What is holding the stagnation in place? Once you know what is maintaining the stagnation, identify what is the one responsible step that would create movement here. You only need one step small enough to complete and meaningful enough to interrupt the pattern.
As we close this wasp series, I want you to recognize this stagnation is not your identity. It is the place where movement has stopped. And if movement has stopped, movement can begin again. I'm Dr. Hollis. Thank you for sharing your space with me on Want to Be the Victory. Until next time, I love y'all.
