How to deal with creative block

You know the feeling. That sense of dread that creeps up behind you, tightens your throat, catches your breath.

You sit down to do your work and nothing comes. You draw a blank. You write nothing. You do nothing.

And the more you struggle to overcome creative block the worse it gets. It solidifies and feels increasingly insurmountable.

Time to put things in perspective. The reason you’re blocked is not because you’re an idiot, undeserving or unworthy. Quite the opposite, actually. It’s because you care too much and want what you’re working on to be perfect.

You’re stuck because you don’t want it to be less than it can be. You don’t want it to be unsuccessful. You don’t want to fail.

Perfectly human. Perfectly understandable. And perfectly less than helpful. Struggling to produce anything is no fun. It sounds noble but it’s incredibly dispiriting.

The best way to deal with creative block? Don’t try and fight it, climb over it, under it, around it. Don’t try and trick it. Don’t do any of those things.

Instead turn the other cheek, turn away. Work on something else and the creative block will dissipate.

Turn your back on creative block and it will vanish of its own accord.

You’ll breathe easy and wonder what all the fuss was about.