5 Inspiration Hacks for Creative People

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Ben Cook of BloggingExperiment.com.

“I think writer’s block is simply the dread that you are going to write something horrible. But as a writer, I believe that if you sit down at the keys long enough, sooner or later something will come out.” - Roy Blount Jr.

The most common problem faced by anyone trying to create something (including bloggers), no matter what their subject or level of experience, is lack of inspiration. Sure, some of us will suffer from it more often than others but there is no avoiding it. Sooner or later you’ll find yourself in a creative desert struggling to write something … anything that doesn’t come across dry and lifeless. For this reason, I’ve compiled this list of 5 Inspiration “Hacks” for bloggers and other creative types to help get you through the dry spell.

7 Steps to Turn Your Self-Improvement Desires Into Reality

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” - John Lennon

How many times have we told ourselves in complete earnestness, “I’m going to be more organized and productive from now on.”? Or that the diet starts tomorrow? Or that we’re going to make a real effort to exercise now?

Only to have that enthusiasm fizzle away, and all our best intentions come to nothing?

25 Killer Actions to Boost Your Self-Confidence

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. - E.E. Cummings

One of the things that held me back from pursuing my dreams for many years was fear of failure … and the lack of self-confidence that I needed to overcome that fear.

It’s something we all face, to some degree, I think. The key question: how do you overcome that fear?

By working on your self-confidence and self-esteem. Without really thinking of it in those terms, that’s what I’ve been doing over the years, and that’s what helped me finally overcome my fears, and finally pursue my dreams.

Join the December Challenge, and a Zen Habits Facebook group!

This is a couple days late, so I apologize … but I’ve started the December Challenge forum in the Zen Habits forums. I encourage anyone looking to form a new habit in December to go there, join the ZH forums, and post your personal December Challenge!

How it works: The Zen Habits monthly challenges are a way to motivate yourself to form a new habit. I’ve personally found it a very effective way to form a new habit: challenge yourself to stick to a new habit every day for 30 days, and be accountable to a group of people in a forum. I’ve done it to quit smoking, start running, eat healthier, wake up earlier, form productive habits and more.

There is no required habit for the monthly challenges — you decide what your challenge will be, and announce it in the “post your challenge here” thread on the forum. Then, report back as often as you can (daily reporting is highly, highly recommended) and see if you can stick to that habit.

Unproductivity: 8 Fantabulous Ways to Make the Most of Your Laziest Days

Ever have one of those unproductive days when you just feel lazy, and don’t want to work on anything on your to-do list?

I sure have. Yesterday was one of them — I didn’t publish a post here on Zen Habits (and a few readers took me to task for that!), I did a little work but not everything I had planned.

We all have our lazy and unproductive days. Sometimes we didn’t get enough sleep, sometimes we just don’t have motivation, and sometimes we get distracted by a fun new game (mine yesterday was befuddlr).

So what do you do? Today, we’ll look at some of my favorite unproductivity-day strategies.