Push it real good. Be still, keep creating.

If your job is being a creator (art, business, writer, musician), how can you guarantee that your output matches your input? Here's what works for me.
1. Start from a place of stillness. Whether or not you meditate every day, starting from a place of stillness clears the mind to make room for the ideas to flow. This could mean taking a brisk walk or doing some yoga stretches or doing another activity you enjoy that gives you a mental break from stress. I wrote last week about starting off my new year with a fast. It again lasted for a week, and I feel great. This sort of cleanse may not be up your alley, but I wouldn't have known it would work for me if I hadn't tried.
2. Begin, every day. It sounds painfully obvious, but if I don't begin my creative work, each day, it doesn't get done. For those wanting to write that book, the wanting doesn't make it happen, the writing does. I put off editing The Stork Reality, my first published novel from 2006, to update and improve it for a 2012 ebook and trade release for weeks because the task seemed too daunting. Unlike when a writer is starting with a blank page, I was starting with 350 finished, published pages. My goal was to cut the fat (including a lot of backstory) and add a storyline about a best friend with fertility issues who desperately wants a baby (adding to the main story that my protag Taylor has a surprise pregnancy and did not want children). I decided the only way it would get done was to work on it FIRST THING and LAST THING in my day. I give myself small goals - 10 pages this sitting or 1 solid hour, no matter what - and do it. Now I'm in the final pages of the book AND I'VE CUT 30 PAGES! I can't explain the feeling, but the analogy of writing a book to birthing a baby is just as true as it was when I wrote it the first time. I was also pleased that the book made me laugh and cry (including several new scenes I wrote) and the theme of friendship through the tough times rings very true to me. I hope the readers love the update.
3. Honor the flow. No doubt, it's an adrenaline rush and dreamy feeling to be "in the flow" when you're working and loving it. If you've timed yourself but aren't ready to stop surfing that big wave, give yourself permission to keep going. My dishes didn't get done last night, but I got closer to the shore, so it was worth it to me to stay in the flow. On the other hand, when my flow is interrupted (which is often with three kids and a dog who want attention) I try to step back on as quickly as I can. I don't ignore the kids when they come to my studio, but they also know it's not a time to sit and tell me about their day, either. We save that for later.
4. Keep inspired. I don't have to be in a happy place to create, and often creating is the antidote to low mood, but I do like to keep a healthy dose of inspiration close. I start my day reading a quick pick-me-up and read blogs and articles throughout the week that keep my mind open to new ideas. (Both for business and my fiction writing.) I read Wired, Entertainment Weekly, O (especially Martha Beck), TIME and everything by Seth Godin, Jane Friedman and Lissa Rankin. I read fiction or non-fiction books, but if I'm not loving it, I stop reading it. Doesn't matter if it's page one or a hundred.
5. Push your limits. Every creative knows what it's like to hit the wall. You wake up, and there's nothing. No-thing. But instead of putting the keyboard aside, we push on, writing what we believe may be crap in the moment, but may quickly turn a corner into something far more interesting than we could have imagined. We would never have gotten there without walking through the storm. Push your limits on ideas, scenes and even expectations. If you don't dare to go there, chances are you'll never get there. No one else walks our legs for us.
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