 10. Interesting English Expressions for Progress or Speed from espressoenglish.net Today's lesson is inspired by a student question. He asked, What does the phrase, We are spinning our wheels mean? Keep watching to find out. My everyday English speaking courses and my idioms course can help you learn a lot more of these casual expressions. If you'd like to sign up, just click on the link in the video. Spinning your wheels means to put in a lot of effort with zero results or progress. Imagine a car or truck that's stuck in the mud. No matter how much the wheels spin, the car or truck will not go forward. Here's an example. The client rejects every suggestion I make. I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels on this project. A similar expression is go in circles. That means to be very active but not make any progress towards your goal. Instead you keep coming back to the same things. For example, the discussion goes in circles at every staff meeting. It all comes down to budget limitations. Number three. Run into a brick wall means to encounter something that makes it impossible to proceed. A brick wall is very hard and you can't go through it so you can't proceed. For example, we were working on buying a house but we ran into a brick wall when we couldn't get a loan from the bank. Number four. Have a mental block. This means to have a psychological barrier that prevents you from doing something or thinking of something. For example, I can't seem to write the conclusion to my report. I'm having a mental block. Number five. As slow as molasses means extremely slow. Molasses is a very thick liquid similar to honey. It flows very slowly. For example, the internet here is as slow as molasses. It takes half an hour to download one photo. Expression number six. Have or make a breakthrough means make a sudden advance, discovery, achievement or overcome an obstacle. We often use make a breakthrough for scientific discovery. For example, scientists have made a breakthrough in clean energy technology with the development of a low-cost solar energy panel. And we often use have a breakthrough for personal realizations when you suddenly understand something. For example, after thinking about it a lot, I finally had a breakthrough. I realized I was the source of the problem. Number seven. Get, shift or kick into high gear. This means to start working faster at a high or intense level of activity. For example, I work for a toy store and every year at Christmas we shift into high gear. In a car you shift into high gear when going fast. Number eight. Be or get in the groove. This expression means perform well and easily because you have been doing it for some time and it's easy to continue. For example, I'm always a little nervous when I start speaking, but I feel more comfortable once I get in the groove. Number nine. Smooth sailing. This describes easy progress with no problems. For example, signing up for classes has been smooth sailing. I was able to do everything online. We also have the phrasal verb sail through something meaning to do it fast and easily. For example, since he already had experience, he sailed through the training exercises. Number 10. At breakneck speed or pace. This means extremely fast. For example, things in this industry are changing at breakneck speed, so it's important to stay up to date. Often these expressions are easiest to learn and remember when you see them in context. My everyday English speaking course, level two, will help you learn informal expressions in conversations. And there's also my English idioms course in which you'll figure out the expressions through quizzes. Click on the links in the video for more information about these courses. Thanks for joining me today and I'll see you in the next lesson.