Sometimes I find myself stuck in a rut creatively. It is not any fun when this happens. Nothing seems to come to me. Nothing happens. It is just the same – blah! How do you find inspiration when you’re feeling trapped in that rut?

What do you do when that happens?

I sometimes really sit and think about this question. What do I do when I am feeling uninspired and need a little pick me up in the creativity department?

Fast Company has an article entitled: “4 Ways to Find Inspiration Everywhere.” I found it to me an interesting read although it was not a checklist of how to jump start the creative juices. The article starts off with the concept that surrounding ourselves with “beautiful things” spurs “inspiration and greater creativity” so to speak. Sometimes I question that. I suppose I should not. The experts agree that it helps. So do we hinder our inspiration? Do we interfere with our greater creativity?

“Everybody can be creative in certain ways,” says Christina E. Shalley, Ph.D., organizational behavior professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “You need to find that outlet that brings it out in you.”

[http://www.fastcompany.com/3025195/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/4-ways-to-find-inspiration-everywhere]

So how do we find that OUTLET that brings out our CREATIVE? Is it even an outlet at all? How do we get to CREATIVE?

The article suggests 4 things that we can do to essentially bring fresh perspective to any situation and thus freeing our inner selves to open up to all the possibilities around us. I will summarize and paraphrase those things here:

  1. Change your perception
  2. Surround yourself in creativity
  3. Shake it up
  4. Think about other things

We all have these perceptions about how things should be. That is not always how they are or how they should be. It does not change the fact that this is how our minds often work. Often we need to do research. We need to step outside. We need to talk to other people. It can be a lot of different things that can help us change our perceptions of things and thus open our minds to more creative outlets.

They say that creative people are surrounded by creative things. If we want to be creative, we have to work at it. We have to practice it a little bit every day. I have read in several places that it takes practicing it 15-20 minutes a day to inspire creativity. Sometimes we have to stretch our creative minds to get them to work to the fullest potential.

If things get stuck in a rut, shake things up. It is that simple. You can keep your perspective new and fresh by doing something new and fresh every day. Change things up a little. This can be simple things. It can be just one thing. Just change something.

Sometimes we just need to think about other things or do something else for a little while to give our minds the free space to be creative. We need to do something else to “recharge” and clear our heads.

You often cannot force creativity, but you can encourage and nourish it.

Now that we have some general ways to welcome it, what are some tips that you have found useful for getting the creative juices flowing? Which category do they fall into?

 

Where do you find inspiration?
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