The magic of creativity

and systems!!

A couple of letters ago I told you that my creativity faucet had turned off. This is a thing that happens to me, and to everyone I think, from time to time. Apparently it happens to me every summer (according to past letters I’ve written to you in July, at least). I guess I’m just too busy soaking up all the creativity around me while Mother Nature shows off all of her best tricks. I’m refilling a cup that will spill over with ideas in January while I’m hibernating.

The funny thing about creativity is that it’s really not something that I can define. It’s invisible, but we see the product of it everywhere we turn. I know, also, from my work with so many different people, all of whom have different kinds of creativity inside of them that it works differently for each of us. For me, it definitely is something that comes from inside of me somewhere, and usually for my new ideas to come I need to be on a walk, or in the shower, or laying on my couch or something. Somewhere quiet where I’m alone with myself. On the other hand, Britt can be instantly inspired by a person or a place or a conversation and suddenly full of ideas.

this felt like a little burst of creative magic… why create it for any reason other than joy?

Sometimes when I sit down to write these letters to you, I stare at a blank page for a very, very long time. Other times I have 75 different ideas and things I want to say to you and the hardest part is filtering through all of them and picking the one that’s right for today. I can run with the ebbs and flows and sometimes write three letters in a sitting, and other times skip a week because I have nothing to say.

But… how to handle those ebbs and flows when we’re doing client work?

That’s the real question and the hardest thing about being in a creative job, I think. Lucky for me, Britt is “the creative” in our business partnership, and I can always rely on her to bring the brightest and best visual and expirential ideas to the table for any project. But in my own work (running the business is creative, too! I wrote about that in this letter last year), and through my work with the Mavinhouse planners I have learned that there are some ways to systematize creativity.

I hate even writing that - and I bet when you read it, you cringed a bit. Who wants creativity to be systematized? It should be romanticized! Celebrated! Prayed to, and revered, right? I completely agree. But here’s the thing: the systems themselves can be creative.

When I think about systematizing creativity, what I really mean is setting yourself up for the best success possible. Putting yourself in the zone. I often recommend to the Mavinhouse team to batch their creative work - it’s truly impossible to dip into the zone in-between emails. Finding the times when you know you’ll best be able to access that well inside of you and working through as many creative problems at one time *is* a system. For me, this might look like bringing my laptop into my bed on a day when I’m at home alone and thinking deeply about whatever it is I need to work on - for a client, for the business, or for myself.

Creative work on behalf of someone else, especially when you’re being paid to build something unique and special out of thin air (over and over again) is not easy. But I’m guessing if you’re reading this, it’s something that you do, and probably because you have no other choice. Creativity of some kind is your gift to the world, and the thing that people pay you to create for them.

As with most things about running a business, I think there’s a couple of ways to provide the service of creativity - one is bringing a client into your world of thoughts, ideas, and conceptual development. The other is tapping into their world and bringing their own creativity to life.

Either way, both are magic. Creativity is a gift that is an undefinable part of the human experience. The act of building a world for yourself in which you are supported financially through grabbing on to the beautiful things that run through your mind and making them real is a beautiful thing.

Writing these letters to you and knowing that you’re out in the world reading them, and we’re all building our own little worlds together brings so much joy into my life.

Thank you <3

P.S. Today is my youngest daughter’s 11th birthday, which feels crazy in a different way than all the other birthdays have felt. Suddenly I have no children who are 10 or younger? How can that be? Maybe this is why I’m feeling a little sentimental this morning.

P.P.S. Thank you for reading Here’s the Thing, it truly means more to me than you know. I mostly write these letters for me, to get things out of my brain (and systematize my creativity!) but the joy I get from your notes back to me is a whole other thing. If this or any of my letters spark something in you - a reaction, a question, a funny story - I hope you’ll tell me! If you’re someone who reads these letters every week (or 2, 3 times a week!) there are three things you can do to support the work:

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