What’s Got You Trapped?
We don’t get trapped by failure — we get trapped by the patterns that once kept us safe.
Every one of us reaches a moment when we realize we’ve built a life that looks right, but doesn’t quite feel right.
Still, we keep performing, proving, pleasing, or playing it safe while calling it responsibility. But somewhere along the way, responsibility became survival.
We stay in roles, routines, and relationships that no longer reflect who we are — or who we’re becoming — because we’ve been trained to override our instincts and call it maturity.
That’s what I call a Trap Type — the unconscious pattern quietly running our lives and shaping our choices. If we don’t name our pattern, we’ll continue to be confused.
But once we do? We get to choose differently.
The 4 Trap Archetypes: Which One Has Been Running Your Life?
Once I started noticing the patterns behind my own decisions — the ones that kept me overthinking, overworking, or over-functioning — I realized something:
We don’t get trapped because we’re weak or unaware.
We get trapped because, somewhere along the way, we learned that safety depended on self-abandonment.
We learn to please so we don’t lose connection.
We learn to prove so we don’t lose respect.
We learn to perform so we don’t lose approval.
We learn to stay passive so we don’t lose control.
These patterns start as protection — but over time, they become prisons.
That’s what the four Trap Types reveal: the hidden logic behind the decisions that keep you stuck, exhausted, or unsure what you really want.
The Prover
“If I slow down, people might think I’m not capable.”
You’ve done everything right—and still feel like you’re falling short.
You measure your worth through performance. You don’t slow down. You don’t stop. You don’t ask for help. You’ve built your worth around what you can achieve—but now you’re running on fumes.
How It Feels to Live This Trap:
In Roles: You’re successful but secretly stuck in over-delivering.
In Routines: Stillness feels threatening. You earn, achieve, then move the bar again.
In Relationships: You’re praised, but rarely truly seen beyond your output.
The Pleaser
“If everyone’s okay, I’m okay.”
You’re always agreeable—but rarely honest about your own needs.
You say yes out of guilt. You silence your truth to avoid tension. You manage everyone else’s emotions while ignoring your own. People call you kind. You feel unseen.
How It Feels to Live This Trap:
In Roles: You carry emotional labor no one acknowledges.
In Routines: You overcommit and brush off your own discomfort.
In Relationships: You’re likable, but feel muted and resentful.
The Passenger
“I don’t want to make the wrong move, so I’ll just wait.”
You’re always “figuring it out”—but never really moving.
You second-guess yourself, defer decisions, and stay stuck in mental loops. You don’t trust yourself to choose, so you keep postponing your peace.
How It Feels to Live This Trap:
In Roles: You’re waiting for a sign instead of choosing.
In Routines: You’re researching, journaling, thinking—but not deciding.
In Relationships: You adapt so much you’ve forgotten your own needs.
The Performer
“If I’m impressive, I’ll finally feel enough.”
You’re admired, capable, magnetic—but you’re also tired of the performance.
You’ve built your life around being what people need. But under the polished image, you’re exhausted, disconnected, and silently wondering:
"What’s left of me when I’m not performing?"
Now you’re trying to remember what YOU want.
How It Feels to Live This Trap:
In Roles: You lead everything but feel like you’re losing yourself.
In Routines: You can’t rest without guilt. Even your self-care is a performance.
In Relationships: You’re the glue for everyone else—but no one checks on you.
Not sure which Trap Type you fall under?
Take this quiz to find out
Each Trap Type is just one way of saying the same thing:
“I don’t fully trust that it’s safe to choose myself.”
Naming your pattern doesn’t put you in a box — it gives you language.
And language gives you leverage.
Once you can see your pattern, you can start to interrupt it.
You can learn to make choices that come from clarity instead of conditioning.
That’s where getting untrapped begins.
The Philosophy of Getting Untrapped
Becoming aware of your Trap Type is just the beginning.
Awareness gives you language — but transformation comes from learning to feel safe enough to choose differently.
Because here’s the truth:
Most of our “bad decisions” aren’t about logic. They’re about safety.
When your nervous system is wired for survival, your choices will always prioritize protection over possibility.
That’s why Get Untrapped™ isn’t about fixing your mindset. It’s about rebuilding your inner safety system — the one that helps you regulate, reflect, and realign your decisions with who you truly are.
The Work of Get Untrapped™
This is what Get Untrapped™ exists to explore — the psychology, science, and soul of decision-making.
Every essay, framework, and story here is designed to help you:
Understand what’s driving your choices.
Rebuild safety from the inside out.
Make decisions that reflect who you’re becoming.
If you’re ready to start:
→ Take the Get Untrapped Assessment to discover your Trap Type.
→ Explore the publication for content that helps you practice self-trust every day.
You don’t need to burn everything down to begin again. You just need to see where you’ve been living on autopilot — and start choosing differently.
Because the goal isn’t to become someone new. It’s to come home to who you’ve always been beneath the conditioning.
An Invitation to the Work
If something in you stirred while reading this — maybe a quiet recognition or a deep exhale — that’s where the work begins.
Not in another self-help sprint.
Not in another to-do list disguised as transformation.
But in the slow, steady practice of learning to trust your own rhythm and voice again.
That’s what Get Untrapped™ is — not just a brand, but a body of work.
A living conversation that integrates psychology, learning, and lived experience.
A space to think, feel, and decide from the inside out.
You can begin anywhere.
Because getting untrapped isn’t about doing more.
It’s about remembering who you are before fear began speaking for you.