Most productivity advice operates in one of two categories: you’re missing a skill or system, or you have a mindset problem. Cat Mulvihill thinks both camps are right — and both are incomplete. There’s a third category that almost nobody is talking about, and she argues it’s the one most likely to be the actual culprit when you’re stuck.
My guest this week is Cat Mulvihill, a speaker, trainer, accountability coach, and licensed Immunity to Change facilitator who has been leading workshops for more than 20 years. After being formally diagnosed with ADHD in 2024, she developed the Momentum Formula — a framework separating the reasons we fail to follow through into three distinct categories: logical, biological, and psychological. Cat is a longtime Lab member and led the second-highest-rated session at this year’s Lab Offline event in Boise.
In this episode, we talk about:
The three roadblocks to follow-through — and why the biological one is the category almost everyone overlooks
How to diagnose which roadblock is actually keeping you stuck, and why the order you check them matters
The “dreaded identity” — the hidden, subconscious version of yourself you’re afraid of becoming — and how it quietly kills follow-through
Why knowing your tendency from Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies framework changes which accountability strategies actually work for you
By the end of this episode, you will have a concrete diagnostic framework for understanding why you’re not doing the things you know you should be doing — and what to try first.
Cat Mulvihill — website and upcoming workshops
The Four Tendencies quiz by Gretchen Rubin
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
LinkedIn bookmarked search overview
LinkedIn
Instagram — @catmulvihill
X — @catmulvihill
The Momentum Experiment Podcast
Full transcript and show notes
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) “Are people going to think I’m a sellout?” — the dreaded identity, cold open
(00:19) Introducing Cat: the Momentum Formula and why the biological roadblock gets missed
(01:59) The 3 roadblocks — logical, biological, psychological — and where brain chemistry fits in
(04:29) Diagnosing which roadblock you’re facing: why Jay thinks his problems are “just chemicals”
(08:04) How to check the roadblocks in order — and the patterns that signal it’s not logical
(10:55) A real Lab member example: when great systems still don’t get used
(14:40) The Four Tendencies (Gretchen Rubin): upholders, questioners, obligers, rebels
(19:25) The “dreaded identity” — the hidden psychological block most creators can’t see
(21:14) Working through all 3 roadblocks with a LinkedIn example
(25:44) Energy management and the biological roots: dopamine, blood sugar, sleep, environment matching
(32:17) How to work with obliger tendencies instead of against them
(36:18) The Immunity to Change framework and next steps for going deeper
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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE
#171: Nir Eyal – Writing books, persuasion vs. coercion, and how to be indistractable
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