With out a doubt this can be one of the harder elements of a creative business.  Staying Creative. 

No one told me it was going to be this difficult, this demanding. The need to be creative is an innate feeling, an insistent burning feeling that won't go away.  It owns you, and requires your attention.  But from one minute to the next... poof... it's gone. Writers have dominated this phenomenon by trademarking it as "writers block".  

But I am here to tell you, the block is not only REAL, it is a real thing for all creatives.  

We live for creativity, we have built our business around it and have given days, months, weekends, years, skipped birthdays, weddings, and more family gathers than I'd like to admit, just to pursue this. With out it, I wouldn't feel alive.  If fuels the fire.  

But when it leaves us, it feels like the break-up of your first love.  Everything slows down.  The quiet mind is deafening. So what now?  I have dealt with this issue for the last 12 years.  Some years more than others and some years it even skips me.  But inevitably it rears its ugly head.  But stress no more... I have found some trusted ways to get your groove back! And here they are.  My hand-dandy, sure fired ways to get that block and show it who's boss.

1.  Set a Lunch Date with Another Creative - Hanging out with your creative pals is a must.  Listen to them talk about their latest projects and see how you can help.  Helping others in their pursuit of passion does something to a creative's soul that is severely necessary.  DO IT!
2.  Read a Creative's Book - Like going out to lunch with your creative pal, reading a book and seeing what has lead the path of others, is crucial to success.  You'll see it was never easy for anyone. Not just you.
3. Travel - This one is my favorite.  Fill your life with inspiration, see how others live, watch the sunset in the opposite hemisphere, ignite that inner child that has built our inspiration from the beginning. No travel is too small.
4. Meditate - Be still.  I know when I get in a rut, I can give myself a hard time.  That voice inside my head is mean and one of the more important things I do to shut her up is meditate.  Sit still, remove all the noise and hit your mental reset button.
5. Just Do It- If it's been going on for a while, and you can't seem to get the ball rolling.  Just do it, your muscle memory will come back.  You'll get back in a state of flow before you know it and rock it even more than before.

Here's how I got creative yesterday after giving myself a kick in the butt that I needed after a couple of mentally slow weeks.