When you are unable to find inspiration for your creations, your work suffers. You cannot get anything accomplished. You whine instead of work. You consider giving up on your art altogether. If this sounds like you, if you have not worked on your latest creation in weeks, then this is how to never have creative block again:

The first step to ditching creative block is accepting the harsh truth. Creative block is an excuse for procrastinating. Creative block is a reason to put your work on hold. Creative block is a way to feel better about stalling when you are not in the mood to be productive.

There are going to be days when coming up with ideas is easy and days when it takes a little bit more effort, but you are never going to run out of ideas. Your creativity is never going to abandon you. Your artistic skills are only going to grow stronger with time.

You need to practice searching for inspiration in the same way you would practice drums or guitar. The more hours you put into the skill, the more proficient you will become.

On the other hand, if you avoid working because you feel like you are not in the right mindset, you are never going to finish what you’ve started. You are never going to grow into a stronger artist. You are going to remain stagnant.

The only way you can create better work is by working. There are always going to be reasons to procrastinate, but you cannot fall back on them. Creating art is not easy. It requires effort and commitment and consistency.

If you want to work in a creative field, you cannot allow creative block to stop you from getting any work done that day. You have to work even when it is the last thing you feel like doing. You might produce lower quality content than you were hoping but at least you produced something. It is better to put in the hours than give yourself permission to slack.

When you say you have creative block, you are not taking ownership over your actions. You are pretending an invisible muse is in control of whether or not you get anything accomplished that day — but you are in complete control of your art.

When you say you have creative block, you are saying you are not in the mood to create. You are saying you do not feel like putting effort into your art that day. You are saying you are willing to lose an entire work day.

If you think sitting around waiting for inspiration to strike is going to lead to a successful career in a creative field, you are misunderstanding the way creativity works. Ideas are not going to appear without exerting effort. You have to search for your ideas. You have to hunt them down and catch them.

If you understand your creativity is entirely within your control and still cannot come up with an idea for the next step of your project, you are probably working on the wrong project. You might want to think about scrapping it and focusing on something you are more passionate about completing. When your heart is involved, the work will feel less stressful.

Remember: Inspiration is not going to magically strike you after you wait long enough. Once you accept you are in charge of the ideas in your head, you are never going to use creative block as an excuse to slack on your work again. You are going to power through and do the work without complaint.