I was in Seattle recently for two and a half weeks, mainly to see lots of World Cup matches and catch up with old friends and family. While there, I took the Seattle Underground tour, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It’s pretty cool, and I highly recommend it.

The Seattle Underground is a network of passageways and old storefronts hidden beneath Pioneer Square. It was created after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889, which destroyed 25 square blocks in the heart of the city. As devastating as the fire was, it also gave Seattle a chance to rebuild differently. Because the city had serious flooding and sewage issues, leaders decided to raise the street level, in some places by as much as 22 feet.

Which means that when you take the tour, you’re walking through what used to be:

🔹Old storefronts

🔹Old sidewalks

🔹Old passageways

But now, parts of Pioneer Square sit on top of those old streets and storefronts.

And that led me to the connection with getting unstuck: what if the real issue isn’t what’s right in front of us, but what’s underneath?

Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re still building on top of it:

🔹We keep adapting

🔹We keep moving forward

🔹We keep producing at a high level.

But underneath, there may be an earlier version of us still shaping what we do and how we do it.

Getting unstuck often means being willing to go down a level. Not to stay there. Not to overanalyze every brick. But to understand what you’re standing on.

Because sometimes the question isn’t, “How do I move faster?” It’s:

🔹What am I building on?

🔹Is it still strong enough to support where I want to go next?

🔹Or am I making today’s decisions from a structure that made sense years ago?

That’s where movement often begins. Not with a huge reinvention. But with a better look at what’s underneath.