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It’s happened to everyone at one time or another. You’re going along, producing and feeling creative, and then, suddenly, you run out of ideas. You’re stuck. You search high and low for inspiration. You look back on your earlier work, searching through your past ideas, trying to locate your muse, looking for something to trigger a creative explosion. But it’s all for naught. You’re blocked.

Regardless of what business you’re in, there’s always a need for creativity. Maybe it’s in how you present your products and services to your potential clients, or maybe it’s the products and services themselves. Either way, you need help getting out of that creative rut.

First, Know That You’re Not Really Out of Ideas

Sometimes when people get stuck, they worry that they’re going to be stuck forever. What you need to know is that your brain is a virtually endless source of ideas. You’re constantly feeding input into your brain, constantly giving it new information and stimulation. You practically can’t avoid it. So take a deep breath and know that this rut isn’t permanent.

Reduce Your Stress

Sometimes stress and anxiety can get in the way of creativity. And when you get even more stressed because you can’t come up with new ideas, you make the block even stronger. Now’s the time to relax and reduce your stress. Mediate, try yoga, get some exercise. Hey, if foosball is your thing, go do that. Whatever it takes. Sometimes it takes just a little bit of stress relief before you suddenly get the old creative juices flowing again.

Just Walk Away

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creative rut is to walk away. Staring at the problem won’t help you. In fact, it may very well exacerbate the situation. So walk away.  Literally. Take some time off and enjoy life. New experiences and meeting new people serve to rejuvenate your spirit and revive your creative flow. So walk away, let your brain take a rest from trying to figure it all out, and experience something new. You may come back with a wealth of new ideas.

Feed Your Brain

One of the best things you can do to keep your own creativity flowing is to give your brain some good, solid input. Read great books, listen to great music, go outside and garden or just sit and listen to the birds or traffic (this one may be a little location-specific). Or do something crazy (insert appropriate disclaimers about legalities and safety here) and give your brain a totally new kind of stimulation. What works will be different for everyone, but the point is to provide your brain with the richest input that you can find.

Look At Your Industry

Sometimes it’s as simple as looking at your own industry. If you’ve been a little lax about keeping up lately, take some time to read up on current trends and the happenings in your industry. What are people in your field talking about? What are the biggest topics and the most significant concerns for your potential clients? Finding out what these issues are and what the top people in your industry are saying about it can stimulate you to think of your business, your products, your services, and your presentation in a new way.

Look At Your Competition

While you’re stepping away from your own work, that doesn’t mean you have to step away from work entirely. Take some time to review your competition. What are they up to and what kinds of products and services do they offer? How do they package things differently, and how do they present themselves differently? Look for innovators and analyze what they’re doing that’s new and different and how they’re finding ways to blaze new trails, then model their behavior so you can blaze new trails of your own.

Look Outside Your Industry

Sometimes industries can get pretty insulated from the rest of the world. When that happens, the ideas in that industry get revamped, recycled, and re-run over and over again. Some of the best innovations have happened when people have merged ideas or ways of doing things from another industry with their own. It takes just one person looking outside the industry to see how other industries are doing something different to transform an industry and how they operate.

You Never Know When Or Where Inspiration Will Hit

Ideas can hit you at any time, in any place. You never know where you’ll get a fantastic idea, and you don’t want to take chances on forgetting something fantastic. I keep a pocket-sized Moleskine notebook with me at all times so I can jot down ideas at a moment’s notice. I occasionally have to pull my car over on the side of the road for a moment to write down an article title or a new product I want to create. Creativity can hit when you least expect it, so the best course of action is always to be prepared.

We’ve all had moments when we feel abandoned by our creativity. When that happens, don’t panic. Your brain may need its roadblocks eliminated, or it might just need some new input. Remain calm, remember that there are many ways to re-stimulate those neurons, and get started!