Stuck can cover a big variety of issues from not being able to see your way thru your current project to not quite knowing where to start. Feeling overwhelmed or unsure of exactly what you want to do, or thinking you lack the knowledge to tackle the work at hand. It can even be from the stresses that life throws at us on any given day and simply not having enough personal time to get that creative energy flowing.

Any and all of these things can leave us creative types feeling frustrated and possibly stuck! So how is it that we get unstuck? What do we do when we dont seem to know what to do next or how to get started again?

I can share with you what has worked for me.

When I am stuck on a project:

If I am working on a project and I feel stuck in it and I am not sure where to go next, I find that walking away from it for a few days can often help me have a clearer picture of what the piece needs. I also find that I have an inner voice that kind of whispers to me what it needs. They answer is there and sometimes I am just not listening. Its not that I didn’t hear it, its that I am still questioning the answer. I think to myself are you sure thats what you should do, what if it doesn’t come out right? The questions can go on for as long as I need to procrastinate about it. But I will tell you that almost every single time the whispers were right, that was exactly what the piece needed. If I had only listened to them sooner!

So now I try to pay attention to the whispers, my intuition, cause time itself, over and over again has proved to me that it is 99% right. I am learning to trust myself more and I think that is the key. When you trust your intuition, your whispers  can often get thru a block in a relatively short time.

When I am having trouble just getting started:

What about when you have trouble getting started? How do shut off the distractions and get started. Well if I have a hard time starting a big project for whatever reason, I find that just sitting and working on something, usually gets my juices going. It’s kind of like stretching before a big workout out. It gets you warmed up. And then once you awaken that muse, get those juices flowing, start on some project, all of a sudden you feel like doing more and more.

I also make it a point to make time for my creative pursuits. I try not to let life take them all away. After all life happens everyday and if we let it, it will steal away our “me” time. And I don’t know about you but I like my me time. Some days I might choose to do my cleaning later in the day so I can get an early start on my work in the studio, because sometimes just doing all the morning chores is enough to steal away my flow for the day. Thats a small everyday instance where life can steal away the “me” time I want today if I am not careful to know how to work around it. I need to know what works for me and what gets in my way so I can see those red flags when they appear in my life.

When I am trying to keep to much in my brain:

Instead of in my notebook!

Having too many things on your mind, whether they are creative or just life things can block your flow. You are concerned and thinking about so much stuff that your creative flow it behind that wall of STUFF in your head. What can you do? Get a notebook, or if you are like me you are more digital then use Microsoft One Note(free trial here), a great digital notebook program that allows me to keep track of all my creative thoughts and ideas and make room for the flow. If I write it down then I don’t have to worry about forgetting it. So I keep that energy track clear by getting it down and moving on.

Now I am not by nature one of those great list people, I dont do lists well and if I do them I usually lose them. But I have learned that finding what works for you when it comes to making notes is well worth it in the long run because it clears up that brain space and makes room for the flow to start.

These are just some of the issues that I have had to deal with and how I have learned to work thru them.

I don’t think there is any one answer, we all have different things that work for us, that get us moving, or that help stop us from over distracting our lives. But no matter what your approach, you have to make your way thru it by doing something.

I would like to know how some of you work thru your STUCK moments! That seems to be a reoccurring problem that we all deal with and maybe we can all throw some helpful thoughts out there into the universe for others to use when they find themselves at this crossroad.