Overcoming a plataue/Gutiarist block

I am too lazy to look and see if this has already been posted (it probrably has) but since it was not in the "listed/ shown" pages, and I do not feel like trying about 15 different ways to search for it--- here goes.

We, guitarists like writers everyonce in while find ourselves ina "blocked" state. Like writers block.

Nothing sounds fresh or original, we are stale and seem to be playing the same stuff over and over again. ANDall of our ususal tricks weknow to pass this bloack or move onward to next level just don't seeem to be working.

What other ways of overcoming these obstacles do others use?

Here are a couple of the things I do to try to "break he block".

1) Take a break from the guitar (maybe as long as months)
2) Switch to the bass guitar or learn bass lines on the guitar.
3) Learn a different "style"
4) Find a new song book or lesson book and try to learn it with in one month.

What things do others do?

I quite often get re - inspired by listening to music in a Pub with a couple of beers - atmosphere I suppose ?

Its actually really good to just stop playing for a couple days. lets your mind clear out and get new ideas.

Watch some music dvd's or a really emotional movie. Trust me.

Find somebody who plays at a higher level than you and try to match it by learning everything they play by ear.
Keep this up for several months... immerse yourself in only that one persons music until you sound as good as or better than them and then stop cold turkey & never play their stuff again.

Go back to playing your own stuff.
At first you'll sound like a blatant ripoff of the other artist, but after awhile, the songs you learned by him will start to fade from memory. Then you'll begin playing your own songs again, using the other artists knowledge and experience to help shape your playing.

Play the same four chords over and over again for an hour. Come up with as many different ways to make them interesting as you can.