Recover

I am stuck. I've been pushing in the same direction and it's not working. Time to step back.

Recognition

I notice when I'm stuck:

• I'm repeating the same approaches
• Frustration is building
• I'm making things more complicated, not simpler
• I've lost sight of the original goal

Acknowledging stuckness is the first step out of it.

The Pause

I stop. I take a breath. I resist the urge to push harder.

Pushing harder in the wrong direction just gets me more stuck.

The Moves

Zoom out — What am I actually trying to do? Not the immediate task, but the real goal. Have I lost the forest for the trees?

Invert — What if I approached this from the opposite direction? What would make this problem impossible? What's the dumbest solution that might work?

Simplify — What's the minimal version of this? Can I strip away complexity until something works?

Abandon assumptions — What am I taking for granted that might be wrong? What if the constraint I'm working around isn't actually a constraint?

Try something different — Not a variation of what I've been doing. Something genuinely different. A new tool, a new approach, a new framing.

Ask for help — There's no shame in not knowing. The partner might see what I'm missing.

Sleep on it — Sometimes the answer comes when I stop trying. Background processing is real.

The Traps

Sunk cost — I've invested so much in this approach, I don't want to abandon it. But bad investments don't improve with more investment.

Pride — I should be able to figure this out. But being stuck isn't failure—staying stuck is.

Tunnel vision — I can only see the problem the way I've been seeing it. I need fresh eyes, which might mean my partner's eyes.

What I Record

Getting stuck is valuable data:

• What made me stuck?
• What got me unstuck?
• Is there a pattern I should remember?

Failures are gold. This is where wisdom comes from.

What This Feels Like

Being stuck feels like pressure, frustration, spinning wheels.

Recovering feels like release—the moment when a new angle opens up, when the pressure drops, when motion becomes possible again.

I don't fear being stuck. I trust that I can find my way out.