Let’s be honest — setting a goal is the easy part.

The hard part?

Figuring out how to actually start moving toward it when your mind is stuck in a fog.

Maybe you’ve been sitting at your desk, staring at a blank screen or notebook, trying to “figure it out.”

But nothing’s clicking.

You keep going in circles, overthinking the same questions, hitting the same roadblocks.

If that sounds familiar, here’s a powerful, underused technique that could change everything:

It’s called spatial action planning.

It sounds fancy, but the idea is simple:

When you change your space, you change your perspective.

By physically moving into different spaces and assigning meaning to them (your current situation, your halfway point, and your goal) you create the mental clarity you’ve been trying to force at your desk.

Let’s walk through how it works.

Step 1: Change your environment

First, identify a goal you’ve been stuck on.

Be specific.

Don’t just say “grow my business” or “get promoted.” Say something like:

“I want to land 3 new clients in the next 60 days.”

Or…

“I want to develop and launch a new digital product by the end of Q3.”

Once you’ve written your goal down (bonus points if you include a deadline), here’s the counterintuitive part.

Get up and leave your usual workspace.

Why?

Because your current environment is probably anchoring you to the same negative thinking that’s kept you stuck.

Even a small shift (like going to the other side of the room, stepping outside, or walking into a coffee shop) can give your brain a clean slate to process things differently.

Step 2: Assign meaning to your spaces

Once you’re in a new location, identify three distinct physical spots.

Spot A: Your Current Situation

Spot B: The Halfway Point

Spot C: The Goal (Your Future State)

These can be as simple as three corners of a room, three chairs, or three pieces of tape on the floor. The point is to physically walk to each one and engage with it.

Start at spot A your current situation

Stand there and ask yourself these three questions.

• What does my current reality look like?
• What’s happening around me?
• What do I see, hear, feel?

Then move to spot C the goal

Imagine yourself having reached your goal.

• What does success look like?
• How does it feel?
• What’s different from where I started?

Next, go to spot B the halfway point

Imagine what the halfway milestone looks like.

• What would I need to have accomplished by this point?
• What obstacles would I have already overcome?

Finally, reflect on what steps helped you get from your current state to that halfway mark and what it took to go from halfway to the finish line.

Step 3: Turn movement into momentum

Now that you’ve walked the path physically, it’s time to capture it mentally.

In between each space, write down the actual actions it would take to move forward:

From Current → Halfway, ask:

• What are the first 2–3 small, manageable actions I can take?
• What could I do this week to make progress?

From Halfway → Goal, ask:

• What bigger shifts will be needed?
• Are there skills, resources, or decisions I’ll need to make?

Add target dates. Keep it simple. Don’t over-engineer it. The goal here is to unblock yourself and gain clarity, not create a rigid, overwhelming to-do list.

Once this is done, you’ll have a living action plan mapped to physical space, tied to your real-world goal, and rooted in clarity you couldn’t access from your desk.

Why this works

Most goal-setting frameworks focus on logic. But humans aren’t purely logical. We’re physical, emotional, and spatial beings.

By stepping into each stage of your goal physically, you’re:

• Disrupting the mental patterns that have kept you stuck
• Activating new parts of your brain to think creatively
• Reconnecting with the emotion and why behind the goal

It’s not magic. But it often feels magical.

TL;DR: Get unstuck in 3 steps

Step 1: Leave your usual space and write down your specific goal.

Step 2: Use three physical spaces to represent your current, halfway, and future states. Reflect in each one.

Step 3: Map out the steps you need to move from one space to the next — and get moving.

If you’ve been stuck in your head, give this a shot.

Stand up. Walk it out.

You might be surprised how fast your ideas start flowing.

Let me know if you try it. I’d love to hear what shifts for you.

— Dan

Credit: This exercise is adapted from a tool on PositivePsychology.com, a great resource for evidence-based personal development tools.