I was crusing around the blog-o-sphere the other day and I found the Brain Dump II and this quote: "When I'm working by myself and I get stuck, the best way to get unstuck is to pretend I'm in some Star Trek scenario. Like, I'm trapped on an enemy moon and everyone else is obliviously partying on the Enterprise, and I have to characterize the sample before the virus kills us all. Then I can usually figure out what to try next."
If that doesn't inspire you to lighten up and take a different perspective on your work, I don't know what will.