01
Gather the pattern without judging it
You collect the agreed action, what happened afterward, the person's own words, and the surrounding conditions. You keep observations separate from conclusions about motivation.
Made for Counselors
Find the Barrier Behind Repeated Inaction
25 min
Intermediate
Communication
Communicate Better
Use a focused reflection to understand why an agreed next step keeps stalling. You sort through practical limits, fear, mixed feelings, outside pressure, unclear expectations, and lack of ownership before deciding how to respond.
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Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
Repeated inaction can look like avoidance or lack of motivation when the real issue is an impossible plan, an unspoken fear, a relationship consequence, or a step the person never truly chose.
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What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Run the six-part barrier scan
You use the primary prompt to compare practical limits, fear, mixed feelings, relationship pressure, unclear expectations, and lack of genuine choice.
03
Check the hypothesis with the person
You turn the analysis into a curious conversation rather than presenting it as a conclusion. The person gets room to disagree, add context, or say the step wasn't truly chosen.
04
Match the response to the barrier
You choose a response that addresses the identified barrier instead of repeating the same plan with more pressure. You either revise the action or plan a focused follow-up.
Make Your Play
Find the Barrier Behind Repeated Inaction
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Select the setting that best matches the conversation.
Describe the specific action that was discussed, including who proposed it and how agreement was expressed.
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List what happened after the agreement, including missed attempts, delays, changes, and any repeated pattern you observed.
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Record the person's explanation, hesitation, or reaction as closely as you can without including identifying details.
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Describe time, money, access, health, transportation, caregiving, language, paperwork, or other practical conditions that could affect the action.
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Describe emotions, body language, relationship pressure, possible consequences, or mixed feelings you noticed without interpreting them as facts.
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What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Gather the pattern without judging it
You collect the agreed action, what happened afterward, the person's own words, and the surrounding conditions. You keep observations separate from conclusions about motivation.
02
Run the six-part barrier scan
You use the primary prompt to compare practical limits, fear, mixed feelings, relationship pressure, unclear expectations, and lack of genuine choice.
03
Check the hypothesis with the person
You turn the analysis into a curious conversation rather than presenting it as a conclusion. The person gets room to disagree, add context, or say the step wasn't truly chosen.
04
Match the response to the barrier
You choose a response that addresses the identified barrier instead of repeating the same plan with more pressure. You either revise the action or plan a focused follow-up.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
Start with facts you could have observed or heard directly. If you catch yourself writing words like “lazy,” “resistant,” or “doesn’t care,” replace them with the specific behavior or statement you noticed. Treat the AI’s barrier analysis as a set of possibilities to check, not a conclusion about the person.
Advanced instructions
Compare the suggested barrier with the wider counseling pattern, cultural context, power differences, and the person’s own account. Test the least assumptive explanation first. If several barriers interact, choose the one that must be addressed before the others rather than trying to solve everything in one conversation.
Use this when
Use this after someone has agreed to a next step but hasn't followed through more than once. It works best when repeating the reminder, making the deadline firmer, or shrinking the task hasn't resolved the pattern.
You'll need
- Counseling setting
- Agreed next step
- Inaction pattern
- Person's words
- Practical context
- Emotional and social signals
You'll get
- Observations from assumptions separated One or two tentative barrier hypotheses supported by available evidence
- Questions that let the person confirm, correct, or reject those hypotheses
- A response matched to the likely barrier, plus either a realistic next step or a clear reason to pause action planning.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- Observations from assumptions separated One or two tentative barrier hypotheses supported by available evidence
- Questions that let the person confirm, correct, or reject those hypotheses
- A response matched to the likely barrier, plus either a realistic next step or a clear reason to pause action planning.
Examples
Progress 1 of 4