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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

11 Ways to Back Out of a Creative Dead End

Most of the US has been pounded with cold and snow the past few weeks. Don’t know about you, but it makes me feel my creative spirit is at a dead end when things outside are cold, bleak, and dark.

So what to do to turn a creative “dead end” into a “live start”?

Here are the ideas I wrote down for myself the other day to break out of my creative doldrums:

  • Be around fun people
  • Spend some fun time with my wife
  • Nap without worrying about losing valuable time
  • Go someplace bright and warm
  • Go someplace dark and warm
  • Finish something (realizing that, unfortunately, blogs aren’t ever done unless you quit them)
  • Find someone who loves something I created
  • Seek out people who have good news to share
  • Appreciate what I have
  • Get worn out from working out and quit eating holiday treats
  • Make a cool handwritten font
That’s what I’ve been trying. Please add your ideas to the list too! – Mike Brown

4 comments:

Jan L. said...

> Live one new adventure each day. We got stuck in the snow in our own driveway. I tried to help push the car out--to no avail. But I'd never done it before, so it was a new experience. It probably would've gone better if I hadn't been laughing so much.
> Find the beauty in the cold, dark and cold, bright. Have you ever noticed how peaceful the world seems when it snows? There's a beautiful blanket over everything.

Mike Brown said...

Thanks for adding two more ideas Jan - great to hear from you!

Laughter of any type is a great solution to a creative dead end!

And there are great moments when the snow has fallen and before we start trying to get rid of it! I need to give these more credit; I so dislike the cold, it's so easy for me to pass these by.

Leslie said...

Get in the kitchen and try a new recipe, or pick up your camera and photograph what you're seeing out the window (or even inside!).

Matt Ferguson said...

Mike-

I like to use the Internet to learn something new or get outside my comfort zone. It's amazing where you can get on sites like Youtube or Wikipedia by starting somewhere familiar and clicking whatever links look most interesting. Nothing engages my creativity like learning something unexpected!