If you're spinning your artistic wheels, doing the same thing over and over again without inspiration, you're stuck. Just like a car stuck in the snow, mud or sand, you need to stop so you don't get yourself into an even deeper rut. The laws of physics apply: objects in motion, stay in motion; those at rest, stay at rest. The old kinetic energy and inertia thing applied to an artist means that if you're barreling along your creative highway working away at 90 MPH, you'll keep going for a long time. If you're at a complete stop, you'll stay stopped. What you need is something to leverage you out of your rut.
Supposedly, if you work at something for 10,000 hours, you're an expert. If you work at any kind of art for any length of time, you realize pretty quickly that you're going to have to pace yourself. Long before you've hit 10,000 hours, you will have hit a dry spell. There's no shame in this. It isn't a question or talent or ability. It's a question of energy. Sometimes you just have to recharge those batteries. Happens to everyone.
I try all the quick and easy fixes first: I try listening to jazz instead of Mozart while I work in the studio; or Nine Inch Nails instead of jazz. If that doesn't help, I change materials. If I've been working in fine clay, I switch to gritty raku clay, etc. Mix it up. Try something new. On my current list are: drawing really big on a scroll; drawing on new surfaces, like cardboard; funky glazes. One thing you have to do is get rid of your preconceptions. How do you know you don't like it if you haven't tried? Go to the biggest art supply store you know and buy something you've never used before. I like to keep a few of these, as treats, up my sleeve for the next dry spell - just like doling out treats for kids on a long trip. (And what a long strange trip it's been!)
If that doesn't change anything, I go ballistic. If I've been working two hours, I push myself to work three. If I've been working three, I do four. Whatever I've been doing obviously isn't good enough, so I push myself longer and harder, to do better. I look at every single thing ever produced that's comparable to what I'm aiming at and see where mine is falling short. I compare it to every single thing I've ever done, to see where the problem is. I do anatomical drawings of bones, muscles, joints. I do studies of hair, fingers, fur, claws, drapery, whatever. Work harder, better, smarter.
If none of that works, you need some serious traction: you need help. Visit your trusty old mentor/teacher/guru, show him/her what you're working on and do everything he/she suggests. If that isn't possible, invite some artist friends over and see what they think about your latest work, what you've been doing and whatever you're stuck on. If that doesn't help, sign up for a workshop in your usual field, or take a class in a material or technique you've always wanted to try but never have. My list: casting in stainless steel, casting in cement reinforced with fiberglass, welding.
If none of that works, you need to get out of town. Go somewhere. Where have you felt the most inspired and excited about your work? Go there. Even if you can't stay long, even if it's just a few hours or days, the change can jolt you out of a rut. The point is to see things in a new way so that you can go back to what you were doing and see what the problem is.
Everything worth doing in life is a marathon, not a sprint. Go for for it.
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