I know that we hear about writer’s block and struggle with how to overcome it, but I think there is a deeper underlying issue that almost everyone suffers from.
Thinking Block
Or maybe we should call it creativity block. If you are a writer it might manifest in a lack of ideas or the words just won’t flow. Other creatives will struggle with it in other ways.
Maybe you usually see things clearly but now…
Or your strength is problem solving but this week…
A few weeks ago I was taking a flight lesson (no I’m not quite done yet) and I just couldn’t do anything right. The maneuvers that I normally would nail, instead were executed with the finesse of a clumsy slapstick comedian. I was blocked.
The fact is I really hate when it happens. Sometimes I go through it feels like ages when the ideas just don’t come. Usually I’m a visionary but during those times… I just don’t see clearly. As I said… Frustrating.
Since I suspect that most if not all of us struggle with this here’s my question:
How do YOU break out of a thinking slump? What’s your secret? I’d really like to know! C’mon Let’s Talk! I could use everyone’s help on this one. 
Alex… what’s your take on it? (changing the subject 
)
Liz, what do you do? (I think I owe you a bloggy tag)
#1 by Lisa Gates on Nov 12, 2007 - 10:22 am
Dave, that was a sneaky little tag and I loved it.
I think a piece of writer’s/artist’s block is in our perception and expectation of what it is to BE in creation and finding ways to be comfortable with our “becoming.” Your flight lesson sounds like an experience of integration…taking your learning, stumbling with it, getting it wrong. Undoubtedly, the next time you fly you will have a different, and I’m willing to bet, positive experience. And you wouldn’t be in that place if you hadn’t pushed your edge.
When we come up against our learning edges, we sometimes back away and say, “this isn’t right, it can’t be so, I don’t have what it takes, I’m a fraud” etc.
Another place that perception and expectation take over negatively is inside these thoughts: “If I were a REAL writer, I’d have written 5,000 words today, I’d already be published, I wouldn’t have so many rejections, I’d be making money” ad infinitum.
Blather.
Create a plan.
Know your process.
Be with yourself in the moment.
Love what is.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Whew, my big FAT 2 Cents!!!
Lisa
#2 by DaveOlson on Nov 12, 2007 - 10:49 am
Lisa… sorry didn’t mean to be sneaking… oh wait a minute… yes I did.
The thing that really through me with the flight was that I wasn’t learning anything new. In fact I was really just going over stuff I have done dozens of times before quite well. But the longer the flight went the more frustrated I got. My instructor noticed it as well. At the end of the flight she said she wasn’t worried about me because she knew that I normally flew better than that. Wheww!
I think sometimes our learning edges feel very similar to our comfort zone. When you’re on the edge of your comfort zone, you tend to feel that the things you are doing are wrong.
I love your idea of being with yourself in the moment. There’s a stress reducer in a nutshell.
Thanks Lisa.