Overcoming Creative Blocks

What might these creative blocks really be trying to tell us? 

I’m not sure about you, but often when I’m blocked, I beat MYSELF up and blame myself for being: 

• Lazy
• Inconsistent
• Not enough
• Busted, broken, or maybe I’m not creative at all!? 

You’re not broken, you don’t need fixing. You just need to listen to what the blocks might be telling you to let go of. 

#1) Creative Blocks Might Indicated You’re Evolving

When you find yourself changing and evolving, yet still trying the same habits, patterns, and routines… it can become harder and harder to do those same things. What was once “old hat” is now draining and HARD. 

This isn’t just inconsistency, and it’s certainly not because you’ve just gotten lazier. It’s likely because you’re evolving. 

Creative energy can flower more slowly (or just, differently) when things are in flux.

When you’re in a major season of personal or professional growth, that old voice or content or branding, the offers, the messaging, your whole identity at times, can feel like you’ve outgrown it.

The more you try to fit into it, the more internal friction there is. 

A few examples:

• Your content doesn’t reflect what you deeply care about
• You’ve added more depth to an area of your work and you’re STUCK trying to post or create from an outdated strategy
• Perhaps, you’re in the middle of uplevling. You’re elevating your business, rebranding inside and out, and you’re doing this all mentally before you can go public with it. As you refine the elements and undergo the self-discovery, there’s a split between who you were and who you’re becoming. 
• Perhaps you avoid writing your About Page, recording your podcast, sending an email like the plague because it’s evolving and doesn’t feel like the YOU you’re growing into

How to overcome this creative block:  A strategy or invitation for the in-between… 

First, stop beating yourself up. This is a much deeper issue than simply procrastination or not feeling like it. 

Don’t try to force output when you’re feeling friction, resistance, or dread.

Ask yourself, “What would the in-between version of me say right now? What would the in-between version share or create?”

Let that part speak. You don’t have to be “finished”, polished, or ready to go public with the final product to share during the process.

You can also create in a way that gives you some breathing room. Making the next right move, not the this has to be forever move. 

• “This is what’s feeling true for me lately…”
• “I’m in the middle of shifting some things behind the scenes, so I wanted to share what’s been on my mind…”
• “Here’s an imperfect but honest post while I’m in the midst of change.”

Rarely have we ever “arrived” and people don’t need your final form, they need your real voice. Especially the in-between one. 

#2) Your Creative Block Might Be  Demonstrating that the Method is Wrong (even if the goal is right) 

When we force ourselves to work in ways that don’t suit our rhythms, values, technological, organizational, and neurodivergent needs, we can quickly find ourselves blocked. 

We absorb a whole lot of rules about what we SHOULD be doing. How we should be doing it. But if those structures aren’t right for us, we can experience resistance. 

A few examples: 

• Every week, you tell yourself you’re going to do Instagram Lives, or Reels, or YouTube. Every day, you don’t. This may not be your wheelhouse or how you best express yourself.
• You hit a block every time you try to batch content. Because… you’re not a batcher. But someone TOLD you that your intuitive, in-the-moment way of working isn’t ideal. 
• Perhaps you’re trying to write captions with punchy hooks, but you’re more of a storyteller than a marketer.
• Maybe you’re trying to write on paper when you usually ideate on Google docs, or vicey versa. Maybe your home is full of distractions. Or your calendar is too full. 

How to overcome this creative block: A strategy or path forward… 

Is the root of your creative block due to working in a way that isn’t working for YOU? Are you using a system that’s not your thing but you keep forcing yourself into the box anyway? 

Whether it be fast or slow, let it go. 

#3) Your Creative Block Might Clue You in to Boredom 

If you’re listening to this podcast and reading this blog, I know you’re smart. And guess what happens to smart people sometimes? We get bored. We get bored when we’re not learning something new, engaged in a bit of a challenge, and keeping things FRESH, purpose-filled, and meaningful. 

Conversely, when things are too HARD or challenging, it can also be a bit boring, so the trick is knowing what your flavor of boredom. Spicy enough not to be overwhelming. 

Creative blocks can come from repetition, lack of novelty, being too much in the weeds. If what you’re doing feels like one tedious rinse-and-repeat after another, it might be time to shake it up. 

How to overcome this creative block… 

The answer will depend on where the boredom lies and what you’re up against. It might be finding new clientele to work with, or trying new projects or offerings. It might be taking on a side gig or getting your creative needs met in another aspect of life outside your business, it might look like overhauling everything! 

It might simply be a matter of getting a crossword puzzle from the newspaper and playing Jeopardy to give your brain some pushups.

Friendly reminder: if you’re bored creating it… there’s a good chance others are bored consuming it. 

And you don’t want that.

#4) Your Creative Block might indicate you’re out of integrity

When we aren’t saying what we believe, need to express, or want to say, we can hit a wall and stall. Being out of integrity and experiencing a misalignment in voice, tone, or message can be incredibly uninspiring. Draining.  

Sometimes the block is your intuition asking, “Why are we still pretending this is what we care about? Can’t we tell them what we REALLY care about!?”

A few tangible examples:

• You’re afraid to say what you really think about your industry, so you zip your lip and toe the line instead
• You’re trying to be “professional,” “inspiring,” or “digestible” instead of honest, deep, or weird.
• You had an idea to launch this product or offering, but now… you just aren’t feeling it 
• You’re repeating safe language because that’s what used to get likes even though it no longer feels like you.

To move forward and overcome this creative block: 

I recommend baby steps in the direction your heart is telling you to go. I LOVE experimenting during times like this.

What would it be like to just EXPERIMENT in sharing my voice in this way?

What would it be like to just TRY to say what I really think and feel and believe?

You can just give it a whirl and tiptoe your way in. Before you know it, you’ll be dancing your way to being unblocked. 

#5) Your Creative Block Might Be Showing that You’re too Busy

When I find myself running in all directions, there’s just not much time for creativity to blossom and bloom.

It’s more about survival: efficiency and productivity. I think for many of us, creativity requires a slower pace, not an urgent one.

When your schedule is bursting at the seams, creativity gets squeezed out—not because you’re any LESS of a creative person, but because there’s no space for you to explore, get curious, spread out, make a slow entrance, and land deeply. 

A few tangible examples:

• You sit down to write your newsletter, but your brain is foggy from six back-to-back Zoom calls.
• You want to start dreaming up a new offer, but your day is full of errands, client work, content batching, and responding to DMs.
• You find yourself saying, “I’ll write that or do that when things slow down,” but they never actually do.
• You have a podcast episode to record, but you’re running so fast, it feels like another to-do item instead of a chance to connect.

To move forward and overcome this creative block: 

Wrangle your calendar IMMEDIATELY for the month after this one. Draw a full stop line. Start bringing in more whitespace in your days, weeks, months, whatever you need.

Before that more time in your life date comes, start adding in more disconnected time NOW.

• Instead of scrolling your phone, go for a walk.
• Instead of listening to a podcast, be silent.
• Journal in the 10 minutes you have in the morning instead of watching the news.
• Create a little more boredom in your life and see what brews up. 

Rushing might get you results NOW, but it isn’t a strategy for connection and creativity. 

Maybe this isn’t a block at all.

Maybe you’re not stuck. Maybe you’re just ready to step up a little bigger and bolder and create from the inside out.

I think so often these so-called blocks are in fact the very way through.

They are the clarity, right in front of us, just waiting for us to let go and stop forcing. 

So, what would it be light to just let go? And see what happens?