We all get stuck occasionally, unable to come up with that next good idea or solution to a problem. We've got a challenge right around the corner and can't think of a good way to handle it. We get writer's block.

What to do? Here are three tips.

Do something different

I was out doing yard work this weekend, absorbing the sunshine and getting my hands dirty. It's a great change of pace. As I was edging along the flower beds, I realized how easily thoughts seemed to flow. I got the idea for this post.

Just about everything in life boils down to the choices we make.

Think about your attitude. You get to choose whether to accept or reject someone, whether to get (or stay) angry, whether to be positive or negative. It's your choice.

Think about your role as a leader. You can choose to micromanage everyone else's job, or you can allow others to do what they do best and support them along the way. You can choose to stay focused on the future, or you can get bogged down in fighting yesterday's battles.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel famously said during his time as White House Chief of Staff, "You never want a serious crisis go to waste." He went on to say that a crisis gives you "an opportunity to do things that you could not do before."

We can apply that to life in general, especially when it comes to failure. None of us wants to fail, and yet it's often the pathway to future success. It presents opportunities to do things and see things that otherwise would not have been possible. Failure is even better if you can incorporate the following three elements:

When is enough, enough? When is it time to quit, pack it in, go home, try something else?

I wish I had a quick answer, but I know that our dwindling attention span makes it more and more difficult to "stay with it." If we don't see instant results, we assume we won't ever see any. As a follow-up to my previous post about beating the clock, this is an enormous challenge.

It's why marketing is so difficult. You don't really know if you're spreading the word as effectively as you can. You're not sure your message is getting out there quickly enough, or if you even have the right message.

Success typically doesn't happen overnight. It's really the result of daily progress. Take Michael Hyatt's post about his new book, Platform. He says he blogged for almost three years before he had a significant following.

Knowing that there's really no such thing as an overnight success, time is the huge variable. How much time will you devote to any single task or objective? How much time will you devote this week to the goals you really want to achieve?

You've been doing the same things in the same way for a long time. One day tends to blend into the next. Routines are well established. Life is predictable.

That likely describes all of us at one time or another. But, as we know all too well, routines can become ruts. Before we know it, we're stuck. 

The problem is complacency. 

We tend to think of habits as bad. We want to break them or overcome them. That's what New Year's Resolutions are all about, usually.

Yet, habits can be good. In fact, most successful people have turned their skills into habits. They repeatedly do the things that will make them more productive and more profitable.

We can all develop positive habits. Here are just a few: 

It is time to shake things up?

I was talking to my wife about her job, and she mentioned she was considering making some changes. She wasn't sure of all of the pros and cons of the changes, but she was giving it some thought. Then she said something that really caught my attention: "I think I'm in a rut and want to shake things up."

I got to thinking, we can fall into ruts all too easily. Someone once said a rut is nothing but a grave with both ends kicked out. 

Ruts lead to all kinds of problems. We lose strength and speed, ideas, momentum, motivation, initiative. Before we know it, we're not just coasting, we're declining.