Your Hurdles & Beyond™
Taking it one hurdle at a time...
Where do you start when you’re trying to work something out?
You’ve had a few conversations.
You’ve thought about it on your own.
You might even know what you should do.
But you’re not quite there yet.
Sometimes it’s about taking it one hurdle at a time.
A structured conversation framework which turns hurdles into insight and progress.
Your Hurdles & Beyond™ provides a simple, staged approach which supports individuals to work through challenges, make sense of what’s happening and move forward with focus.
The framework reflects how progress is developed in practice, moving from preparation through challenge to reflection. It can be used flexibly, whether in one-to-one conversations or more widely to support how people think, reflect and move forward.
Why "Hurdles"?
We talk about hurdles as signs of progress.
There’s a hurdle.
This hurdle is in the way.
I need to get over this hurdle.
It's a small hurdle.
It's a big hurdle.
I don't want to fall at the first hurdle.
I don't want to fall at the last hurdle.
Hurdles can appear any time...
You might be:
Trying to get past something which keeps holding you back.
Working through something which feels like a bit of a challenge.
Facing something new and not quite sure how to approach it.
Having a conversation which never quite gets over the line.
Or just knowing there’s something in the way, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.
The Framework
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Warm-Up Zone
A pause to step back, understand what’s going on, and get clear on what you’re trying to work through.
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Starting Line
A check-in on readiness, agreeing to begin and take the first step.
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The Hurdles
Working through the process, one hurdle at a time, to understand what sits beneath and how to move forward.
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Finish Line
Stepping back to recognise what has changed, what’s been worked through, and what progress has been made.
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Podium & Beyond
Taking it in, building on what’s been learned, and deciding what comes next
Looking to use this within your organisation?
If you’re considering how this could be applied across your teams, we’ve developed a version of Your Hurdles & Beyond™ specifically for leaders.
It’s designed to be picked up and used straight away, supported by a practical handbook and conversation card pack, without the need for extensive training or large programme investment.
This makes it a simple, cost-effective way to strengthen day-to-day leadership conversations and begin building a coaching culture within your organisation.
Executive Coaching Client, NHS Senior Manager
I came to coaching wanting more confidence and got far more out of it than I expected.
Breaking things down step by step into hurdles helped me approach situations differently.
The Research Behind Your Hurdles & Beyond™
Your Hurdles & Beyond™ is grounded in robust psychological and educational research.
It brings together proven ideas from learning science, coaching psychology and cognitive theory to help people and teams navigate challenge, growth and change more effectively.
Metaphor
At the heart of the model is a central metaphor (the hurdles track) which turns abstract experiences like challenge, transition, or uncertainty into something relatable and actionable. Research on conceptual metaphor and embodied cognition (Lakoff & Johnson) shows that metaphor helps people make sense of complex ideas by mapping them onto familiar experiences. Your Hurdles & Beyond™ builds on this principle, providing a structured, story-like path that helps users locate themselves, reflect and move forward.
Studies in coaching psychology (Thompson, 2021) and construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010) support how metaphor and psychological distance make difficult topics safer to explore. Narrative research also shows that organising experiences into a coherent story improves insight, motivation and well-being (Adler et al., 2015).
Motivation, Reflection and Visible Progress
Your Hurdles & Beyond™ was designed to merge reflection with movement. Drawing on the goal-gradient effect (Kivetz et al., 2006), it uses visible progress markers (i.e. each hurdle cleared) to sustain motivation and momentum. Reflective prompts encourage thinking before, during, and after action, creating a full learning cycle and reinforcing habits of ongoing improvement.
Practical, Ethical and Flexible
The framework’s strength lies in its multi-level flexibility. A single hurdle can represent one event or an entire developmental journey, allowing leaders and teams to apply it across personal, interpersonal, and organisational contexts. While influenced by therapeutic research on metaphor and cognitive detachment, Your Hurdles & Beyond™ remains firmly a developmental and reflective tool, not a clinical intervention.
Evidence Made Practical
By integrating principles from learning theory, leadership research, cognitive psychology and narrative science, Your Hurdles & Beyond™ transforms robust theory into a tool which can be used in everyday practice.
It helps people not just talk about challenges, but locate themselves within them, find momentum and move beyond them.