If you’re stuck in limbo on a goal, feeling that you’re in a rut and spinning your wheels, take a trip from winter drivers. Anybody who has ever had a car stuck in snow will tell you that the worse thing you can do is try to force your way forward.

“Pedal to the metal” will get you flying on a clear highway, but when you’re stuck all it will do is keep you spinning your wheels, digging yourself into a deeper rut. The trick to getting out—both with cars and with goals--is to slide into reverse and back up a bit, then scoot forward. Every time the rut grabs you, do it again. Get yourself rocking, back and forth, back and forth, and finally you’ll find that you’re free.

How do you put a goal into reverse? By aiming in exactly the opposite direction from where you want to go. Trying to write a clear and lucid report? Write a page of pure gibberish instead. Trying to make a painting work? Paint like you did in kindergarten or try painting with your non-dominant hand. Need to design a solid structure? Design one that will certainly collapse at the first hint of stress.

Often when you’re stuck it’s because you have a notion that there’s a “right” or “perfect” way to do what you’re attempting and no matter how much effort you give it, you just can’t hit the mark. The harder you try, the more elusive the solution becomes and you get mired in frustration and self-doubt.

Reversing your goal and giving your attention to doing it as clumsily as it could possibly be done or to producing the opposite of your original aim frees you from the need to be elegant. It allows you to surrender to the fact that you’re not getting anywhere, to accept it instead of continuing to strain. It takes the pressure off you and triggers the childlike, playful part of you that invents just to be inventing, acting just to act, heedless of the result. That alone is often enough to give you the momentum you need to go forward again.

And it has an additional benefit, too. It lets you see new dimensions of your task, to give you a new perspective of where it is you’re headed so you can steer around the place where you were stuck before. You’re using a different part of your brain, bringing fresh neurons into the game.

If you do get stuck again, back up another time. Intentionally produce the worst outcomes you possibly can before you try going forward—and go forward lightly, with ease. Every reverse roll will provide you with some bit of insight or energy to move you farther forward until you find yourself once more on solid ground.

It’s a counter-intuitive method, but it will get you out of your rut. Next time you’re spinning your wheels, give it a try.

Want more tips and techniques for reaching your goals? At http://www.thetomorrowgame.com you can subscribe to Susan’s free newsletter “The Magical Mirror” and read more articles on goals, dreams and winning attitudes.

Susan K. Minarik has been involved in the personal achievement field for over 20 years and is the author of “Winning the Tomorrow Game: How to Discover and Create the Life of Your Dreams.”