For some reason you can't summon the gumption to do anything with enthusiasm.

You feel stuck in a rut, and you don't know why.

It has happened to me, and frankly to every grown up I know, though many won't admit to it; thinking it's a sign of weakness.

It can be a source of strength and new inspiration providing we interpret its "message” properly.

Let me speak from my experience with a common creative malady, "writer's block.”

This is what I call, "Stuckness.”

And what's interesting is it doesn't just afflict writers, it afflicts all "creative” types, including actors who won't audition, painters who don't lift their brushes, and sculptors who can't bring themselves to touch another smidgeon of clay.

But all human beings are creative, whether they're cooking something new, or driving a novel way to the airport. So, Stuckness is a creative block, of any kind.

When I suffer from writer's block, it's usually symptomatic of other things:

(1) I'm feeling unappreciated; telling myself nobody likes my stuff.

(2) I'm whispering in my mind that I've lost it, whatever that magic was that made my work "good.”

(3) I'm anticipating rejection by editors and publishers.

(4) I'm predicting that my work won't sell; that it will be a commercial flop.

(5) I tell myself I should be doing something more productive.

(6) I feel I'm just re-hashing old stuff, or stuck in a single writing style that's confining.

(7) What I'm doing feels like WORK, and nothing but; it's joyless.

(8) I don't like my own writing; it reads terribly to me.

If you synthesize this entire list it boils down to just a few things.

I'm predicting and expecting failure. And I'm judging, and expecting others to judge my work, negatively.

In light of these concerns, of course I'm going to stop producing.

The key is to get back to doing the activity, whatever it is, merely for the joy of it, because it's fun, because it's a way of losing and finding yourself at the same time.

Once you do this, instantly, you'll be unstuck.