What’s Your “Over the Top” Technique for Creative Leverage?

In case you’re not up on all your Sylvester Stallone movies, “Over the Top” starred Stallone as a truck driver trying to win custody of the son he never knew he had by competing in professional arm wrestling competitions. Yes, I’m serious.

When he was in a match he was about to lose, he performed a technique involving moving his fingers over the top of his opponents hands—apparently this is called the top-roll. This always allowed him to gain the advantage and made winning inevitable.

At some point during your creative projects, there may come a point where you begin to struggle in finishing it. It’s here where you have to find a way to free your mind and overcome it. I know I’ve had countless good ideas fail and disappear because of this.

What works for me may not work for you, but here’s a couple of my techniques for finding creative leverage when I’m really struggling.

Find Music That Connects with or Inspires Me

I don’t know what I would do without Pandora to help me find the type music I need.

My first go to station is 80s New Wave. It’s this style of music that I connected with most when I first started really appreciating music. Maybe it’s the emotional connection to something I’ve always loved that makes it work for me.

My second favorite station is They Might Be Giants. Their music has an upbeat tempo and creative lyrics that often help put my mind in a mode to better see new creative directions for a project.

Go Back to What Worked in My Childhood

For this technique, I’ll grab my pen and a notebook, plus a couple of pillows off my bed. Then, I’ll lay on the floor on my stomach and write.

It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid and still works for me today as an adult. Of course, I can only do this if I’m working from home. If I tried this while working from a library, it would look pretty strange.

I would love to hear your “over the top” technique for creative leverage. Please share yours in the comments if you’d like.