This past March when I was up at 3am during one project’s development phase, struggling to come up with something that was original, not boring and still tactful, I became frustrated. Sometimes the creative juices just seem to be on vacation, or asleep. For me, there seems to be no magic key, scientific method or steps to take to trick the creativity. Believe me, I’ve tried.

Sometimes I do what I did that early morning and turn to the web. I typed “writers block for graphic designers.” Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk is what I found. And what a find!

Immediately I sent this link out to all of my friends and colleagues. Some of them are my partners here in A Few Good Marketers, some of them are in our extended network of designers, project managers and biz dev folks, and some were some of my friends who, by their own account, are not “creative.” Not surprisingly, all designers loved it. Also not surprisingly, everyone else didn’t watch it because they felt it didn’t apply to them.

“I’m not creative.”

That’s what I found so compelling about this speech. It is focused on artists and performers, but can also be applied to everyone. An accountant trying to balance an extremely complicated bank account would be called “a genius” if he balanced it to the penny.

So it is in this spirit that I share this video once again. No matter what your profession or job, you can take something positive from this talk.

And thank you, Elizabeth Gilbert, for and entertaining and inspirational 10 minutes!