When your creativity becomes stale

Stanley's new profile photo.

There are times when I look at my work I see things getting stale; there is just nothing that pops. You want your work to have visual surprises so that your work engages the audience.

While your work may still pop for your audience because not everyone has seen your work everyday like you, this still doesn’t remove the feeling you have about your own work. If you wait to address this when you clients are thinking your work is stale then you have waited too long.

Through the years I have tried many different things to get me out of those ruts. Here are some things I have used and continue to use at times to help get my creative juices flowing once again.

1. For the photographer I recommend trying shooting all day with an extreme wide angle lens like a 20mm or even wider. If this is your normal lens of choice try something different like a macro or extreme telephoto. It is forcing you to look at the world differently than you are doing now.
2. Change your routine. If you eat your breakfast always in the same room, take it outside on your deck or go to another room. Drive a different route to work.
3. Change your food for a while. Eat at different restaurants or even try a new ethnic food you haven’t had before.
4. Plan a trip. The process of looking for somewhere to go, planning the logistics and who to go with can help inspire you.
1. Plan a day trip to a park, an event, or a historic location.
2. Plan a weekend trip to the mountains, beach or just a bed and breakfast in a town nearby.
3. Plan a big trip somewhere.
5. Take a Workshop, Seminar or Class. This can be something in your profession or just something different. If you are a photographer you may take a painting course or go to a college to hear experts speak on something new for you. Enroll in a community college class and learn something totally new and different.
6. Read something new. To find something to read ask some friends what they have read lately. If you like biographies—Google the topic and put in date ranges to see what pops up. Maybe go to a local library and talk with a librarian for ideas.
7. Watch some movies or go to play/theater. Look into documentaries or classic movies. Put out a request to your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn connections to have them recommend something to you. Don’t just consider what is in the theaters.
8. Change your diet/health. I joined Weight Watchers after years of going to a gym. I lost 50 lbs and that made a huge difference in the way I see life. I put some of this back on so I now am adding other activities to get back to my ideal weight. It is amazing how much being out of shape can adversely affect your creativity.
9. Take up a new hobby. Maybe you sign up to learn how to fly a plane. Maybe you volunteer to help with boy scouts or some other civic group. Get involved somewhere that will expose you to people who think differently than you. It is here that your emotions and brain will stretch in new ways of thinking and feeling about the world.
10. Start trying to make a photo a day. Quickly you will discover that you will have to live with mediocre to accomplish this goal. Maybe the thing holding up your creativity is failure. Take on a project that will be OK if you fail, but give you ample room to have success as well. Maybe the creativity is blocked not by lack of desire but the unwillingness to live with less than perfection.

Most importantly do not measure your life by what you do only—learn to measure your life by learning to just be. For me having my friends around doing nothing, but just there is more rewarding than them always doing for me.