Back to Square One

"Everything | Everything | Everything | In its right place | In its right place | In its right place" - Everything in Its Right Place, Radiohead

Sometimes things are going well, progressing smoothly, and you're checking off tasks one after another.

...and then you hit a wall.

How do you break through, solve the problem, and move on?

You can walk away for a few minutes, hours, or days and see if distance opens up new directions. You could call in the power of others: colleagues, friends, experts. Standard playbook.

But if none of that works, you may need to go back to square one: review your notes, trace the process again, and approach it like a detective who suspects they missed something.

Hint: you did. It may not be the exact solution you were after, but it's another puzzle piece, not necessarily for this puzzle, but likely for the next one.

Going back helps you catch what was overlooked, check whether you'd already found the answer without realizing it, or simply revisit something with fresh eyes. Sometimes we reach the answer too early and can't see it yet.

And sometimes you just needed the walk-away-and-review combo, and voila... everything falls into place.

Or none of it works and going back to square one still feels like a dead end. Even then, it wasn't wasted time. Reviewing, following the process, checking who-what-where-when-how contributes to growth in ways that aren't always immediately visible.

It may not be this time around. But it helped in one way or another, and could end up being a lot of fun too. :)