Creative Blocks

Sometimes when I am designing a lesson plan, I find that things aren't quite clicking, and I need some kind of serendipity to bring pieces together. Working on one thing for a long time, I start to believe that the project is not coming together because I am not working "hard enough" and am not focusing on the task at hand. But what would it be like to think about this differently--to think that the lack of focus is not the problem in itself, but, rather, a signal that something else is needed that is not in the immediate vicinity of my focus or my objectives? Sometimes, no matter how hard a person tries, the puzzle isn't coming together, not because one isn't making an effort, but because the pieces just aren't all there.
  The act of creating seems to be a frustrating one because it's always about working with different wavelengths. On the one hand, discipline and focus are definitely needed to organize one's objectives and make sure one is doing things with a plan in mind rather than haphazardly. On the other hand, there needs to be space to be able to say, I am not there yet: there is some reason why this is not coming together as I think it should, and no amount of force is going to "make it so". So I need to put down the methods I am using to do this project and quite simply try something else.
   When the lesson plan isn't as good as I want it to be, I can think, "well, I guess I am going through a rut. Let's find something else that might put it in perspective." This isn't about abandoning the plan altogether so much as it is about temporarily back-burnering it and allowing other things to intertwine with it. It could be about finding an unexpected connection or just stepping out of the familiar to allow this something else to happen. But I guess the worst thing to do is to berate oneself or try to repeat the "stay focused" mantra, since a lack of focus can be something to listen to and honor as a sign that something else may be needed at the moment.