What If Doing Things Backwards Could Help You Move Forwards?

The mention of National Backwards Day, celebrated each year on 31 January, might make you roll your eyes: do these more obscure and trivial awareness days really have any point? 

Yet get past the cynicism, and there’s more to Backwards Day than first impressions suggest. It invites us to do things a little differently: people might wear their clothes back to front, eat dessert before dinner, or write messages in reverse. 

Yes, it’s light-hearted, faintly ridiculous, and easy to dismiss as novelty. But from a psychological perspective, the idea of thinking backwards can actually help us look at familiar problems from unexpected angles. 

In that sense, thinking backwards isn’t silly at all: it can be a powerful creative tool.

Why do our minds love the familiar?

The human brain is an efficiency machine. It loves habits, routines, and shortcuts. These help us get through the day without having to consciously analyse every decision: useful when making a cup of tea, less so when we’re stuck in unhelpful emotional patterns.

Over time, many people begin to approach their problems in the same direction, with the same assumptions:

• “This is just how I am.”

• “I’ve tried everything.”

• “There’s no other way to look at this.”

Thinking backward gently disrupts this mental autopilot. When we reverse the order of how we approach something, even as a thought experiment, the brain is forced to slow down, pay attention, and consider alternatives.

Starting at the end instead of the beginning

One simple form of thinking backwards is to start at the outcome rather than the problem.

This might look like asking:

• If this situation felt resolved, what would be different?

• What would I be doing more of  (or less of) if this issue wasn’t dominating my life?

• How would I be speaking to myself if I felt calmer, freer, or more confident?

Working backwards from an imagined endpoint can reveal practical steps that feel less overwhelming than tackling the problem head-on. It also helps shift the focus from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What might be possible?”

Reversing rigid thought patterns

Thinking backwards is also closely linked to cognitive flexibility, which involves the ability to hold more than one perspective at a time.

If someone has a deeply held belief such as “I always get it wrong”,  thinking backward invites curiosity:

• When did this belief first appear?

• What evidence might exist for the opposite being true?

• What would it sound like if this belief were turned on its head?

This isn’t about forced positivity or pretending everything is fine. It’s about loosening the grip of thoughts that have started to feel like facts. Sometimes, simply reversing the wording of a belief can expose how harsh or absolute it has become.

Creativity, play, and psychological safety

There’s a reason playful approaches can be so effective. When something feels slightly absurd, like deliberately doing it “the wrong way round”, the stakes feel lower. People are often more willing to experiment when perfection isn’t the goal.

Thinking backwards creates psychological breathing space. It allows us to explore ideas without immediately judging them as sensible, realistic, or achievable. In that space, creativity tends to surface naturally.

Becoming more present by disrupting routine

One unexpected benefit of doing things differently to normal is increased presence. When an action is unfamiliar, we can’t rush through it. We have to pay attention.

In everyday life, this might be as simple as:

• Taking a different route on a familiar walk

• Changing the order of a morning routine

• Approaching a recurring problem by asking a new question first

These small disruptions pull us out of autopilot and into the present moment; a core element of emotional wellbeing.

If you’re curious about how different thinking can be explored more deeply, Internal Family Systems therapy offers a structured and compassionate way to do just that. 

As a specialist branch of psychotherapy, IFS helps people understand their inner world by gently turning towards different “parts” of themselves; even those they might usually avoid, criticise, or push away.

If nothing else, National Backwards Day invites us to loosen our grip on certainty, invite curiosity back in, and remember that the mind, like life, often opens up when we’re willing to look at things differently.