When you work in a profession that relies heavily on your creative abilities like writing, cooking or sales, you often get dry patches where your mind goes blank.  You bills can’t wait for your ideas to come back, so you get stressed out.  Which makes your mind go into even more of a blank state than you originally thought it could.  This is why some people turn to mind-altering substances in order to get their creativity going again. 

One of the most inexpensive is sleep deprivation.  The theory is that when you can’t sleep a while, your inhibitions go down and you are more willing to take creative risks.  In the long run, insomnia is as harmful for you as taking drugs.  Your best way to get the creative juices flowing again is to keep on working.

Less Sleep, More Mistakes

I used to have insomnia, the unintentional kind.  It certainly altered my mind, let me tell you, but not in a nice way.  I felt under pressure all of the time and, for some reason, stared at, even when there was no one in the room.  It made every day events like having to use the toilet, bathing or eating ice cream just a little nerve-wracking.  My insomnia was later diagnosed as a side effect from major depression,

But this shows the mistakes you can make when you are sleep-deprived.  For example, despite my subconsious saying that I was constantly being watched, I just don’t have that large or devoted a fan base. (And no, I’ve never seen  The Truman Show, nor do I want to).  But these are the kind of mistakes you can make while sleep deprived.  You can wind up making these mistakes on your job.  You think you’re doing something brilliant — but if you weren’t sleep deprived, you’d have seen that what you were doing was crap. 

Keep On Keepin’ On

Although it sounds impossible, the best thing a person employed in a creative job is to just keep on working, even if the mind is a total blank.  For example, a chef can keep on cooking tried and true dishes until eventually they get the food muse talking.  Writers are encouraged in those "How to Write" books to keep a diary, journal, or blog and just make random thoughts.  Don’t worry about it being a work of art — just get words to paper or computer screen.

Those in jobs that rely on our creativity tend to think that we get a few sudden does of brilliance and that’s it.  Actually, that’s not true.  Creativity is inside of us all they time, but needs to be used like muscles.  Writing, selling, cooking, being a work at home Mom — they are all skills based on practice and exercise you must do on a daily basis. 

Look at the big sports athletes lauded in their fields.  They didn’t just one day get up and SHAZAM were professional athletes.  It takes a lot of years of practice.  Even when they are professionals, they still have to exercise and practice.  So, their bodies can often instinctively make those awe inspiring moves.

Creativity is just the same.  You can’t do any short cuts like sleep deprivation in order to tap it.  You have to practice, whether you feel like it or not.

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