Finished Big Magic, How to Think Like a Freak, and Creativity, Inc. And now I am rewarding myself with a purely for pleasure detective novel. The books were all great in their own way, but my favorite was Creativity, Inc., written by Ed Catmull, the President of Pixar Studios. Now aged 70, he writes about his lessons learned in managing a creative business with the additional backstories of the history and evolution of animation, as well as his 25-year relationship with Steve Jobs. It was fantastic and inspiring. In 1972, he animated a hand, which was no small feat at the time. Since then, he’s been a part of every major milestone in the advancement of animation technology.
My favorite chapter on a practice I increasingly wish would be adopted where I work was on Notes Day (described pretty well here). The gist of it is that he presented a problem of practice to everyone at the organization, set a goal to address the problem, and gave the employees the space and time to prep for and think about solutions. It culminated in an all-day, mandatory, all-staff meeting with multiple sessions for everyone to brainstorm and offer up ideas, actions, and next steps. Talk about change management – how’s that for employee buy-in?
Too often leadership makes big decisions that are trickled down to the teams to implement as they see fit. Probably similar to how federal government regulations are set, filtered down to the states, and by the time they are implemented at the local level where the rubber really meets the road, they look nothing like the original intent of the regulation…or there are unintended consequences that create a barrage of other problems needing to be dealt with. How different would it be if we all took ownership of the problem and the solution? I would never say that is how we should run the government – there’s just too many conflicting opinions and beliefs. But, in a business where everyone has the same goal (whether that goal be putting out cutting edge animated movies, curing infectious diseases, or ensuring all students graduate ready for college), I think this could work and create a really fun, innovative, culture of empowered staff.
After finishing Creativity, Inc., I moved on to Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert’s (aka Eat Pray Love lady) latest book. This was another one about embracing and fostering creativity, but at the individual level as compared to the organization level. Are you picking up on a theme yet??? It was a quick read. There were a handful of take-aways – nothing outrageously new, but at the same time it felt reassuring if nothing else that her beliefs reinforced the need for more creativity in my life. However, there were a couple of things that made me compare out. 1) She’s known since she was 16 that she wanted to be a writer for a living. Knowing what you want to do has got to be more than half the battle and I still don’t know what I want to be. But I did find myself daydreaming about lots of things while reading and having to go back and reread several paragraphs because I was thinking about signing up for a drawing class or photography or something. 2) I couldn’t help but stop at one point and google ‘Elizabeth Gilbert net worth’; the answer to which was $25M. That doesn’t discount her message and she totally acknowledges the unusual success of Eat, Pray, Love, but she also talks about the hard and relentless work and countless number of rejections she received before getting to where she is today. She truly is a creative and I admire her for that. I also like that she lives in a very small town in New Jersey (about 40 minutes drive from Bethlehem) with her brazilian husband (who is the love she found after eating and praying). Her creativity also comes from a positive and loving place – not the brooding, manic-depressive stereoptyical artist living in a constant state of heartbreak and angst.
This book coincided nicely with Brene Brown’s book, Rising Strong, as well as the mindfulness training I’ve been taking at work led by Anakha Coman. I can’t remember which one specifically, but in one of those books or classes, I picked up on something I really love. That is the mantra, ‘Let Go of Who You Think You Should Be’. Here I am, 39 years old – 40 is so close I can almost taste it and on a daily basis I beat myself up for not having the body I think I should have or being the weight I want to be. I live in shame and drive myself further into using food as an escape and do it in secret (in the privacy of my own home, in front of my kids and Ben who would never call me out on it). Shame lives in secrets and there are ways to drive it out; such as, countering negative self-talk, practicing self-care and mindfulness, being in gratitude, and this concept of letting go who you think you should be.
As 40 approaches, I feel like each year since 35 has presented me with a new age-related problem. At 36, I developed melasma (mask of pregnancy) while pregnant with Declan. Ok, I ignored all of the warnings to stay out of the sun while pregnant and exacerbated the problem due to my own sheer stupidity. So now I have brown spots on my cheeks that won’t go away. 37 was the year I jokingly say I let myself go. After having Declan, I just never lost the last 5-7 pounds. They are sticking to me like glue at this point. At 38, after staring at a computer screen for approximately 30,000 hours over the last 15 years, my eyes decided they needed a break. I now wear glasses, squint while reading, and have to hold things farther away so I can focus on them. Oh, then there is 39. 39 is the year of the back injury. I’ve been getting massages and doing physical therapy for the past 6 months with little to no improvement. I have mild scoliosis which can go without symptoms for many years, but will eventually cause problems as you age. So, what will 40 bring and will I embrace it or will I continue kicking and fighting it tooth and nail like a toddler in meltdown mode? What if I let go now? Not just let myself go, but just let go of the tight reins I have on life. How much more fun would I have, and creativity and innovation and risk-taking? Yeah, I’m not perfect but I never will be, and perfectionism is nothing more than a roadblock between the life I live and the life I want to live. I have always feared that if I’m not steering the ship and in total control that life would go off course and I’d end up a 300 pound ba-boom. In truth, control (or the illusion of) and perfectionism have probably done the opposite. So it’s not just a matter of taking my foot off the gas, but also to do so in a way that is loving to myself and others around me.
As an aside, one of my other recurring daydreams over the past couple weeks was about having a girls weekend get-away with JK Rowling, Brene, and Elizabeth Gilbert. How much fun would that be? I love those ladies.
Ok, so last up is How to Think Like a Freak written by the 2 Steves (Dubner & Levitt). Freakonomics was like a gateway drug for me 10+ years ago – it led me to a genre of books on behavioral economics, incentives, opportunity costs, Malcolm Gladwell and the like). I bought Superfreakonomics (their 2nd book) when it came out, but having newly embraced the concept of quitting a book or movie if it’s not doing it for me (opportunity costs!), I stopped part-way through and never picked it back up. Think Like a Freak was similar to Big Magic in that they are both the author’s 3rd book, the first was wildly successful and led to countless opportunities, and now they are writing from a place of reflection, wisdom, and playfulness. Also, it kind of reminded me of the blog I’ve been enjoying, Wait But Why; it has the same curiosity and playfulness around different research questions.
So my new kindle has been by my side every day since I bought it. As predicted Amazon is banking off of me as I’ve already spent more on books than I did to purchase the device. However, something in Think Like a Freak gave me peace of mind on my book-buying habit. Frankly, I don’t even remember the context, but my take-away was to think about public libraries as an entry for kids into the wonderful world of reading and that as an adult it changes and you purchase rather than borrow books – similar to how you would buy music to support the artist – to pay homage to their craft. Yeah, that’s it – the moral high ground. That’s me. Now, onto Career of Evil…