A wall in your way isn’t only a wall. It’s information about where the path isn’t.

An obstacle does two things at once, and people usually register only the first. Being blocked is frustrating, and it also narrows the search, because you now know one route that does not work and you did not know that yesterday. Elimination is slower than arriving and it is genuine progress.

When something closes, write down what it told you before you move on. Ask what the block rules out and what it leaves open. A few of these in a row point somewhere more accurately than planning from the outside.