If you’ve been keeping up with The Inside Scoop, you know that every four weeks IHAF highlights a new topic of interest to the in-house agency community—and we blast that content across our digital and social platforms.

Well, when this month’s theme was proposed in a recent IHAF Board meeting, I immediately raised my hand and volunteered to write about it. It’s a subject that’s dear to my heart and one where I felt I had much to contribute. This month is all about Creativity.

The deadline was tight but blogging about creativity would be as easy as eating chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream. Seriously, as a creative director and art school alum, I have a wealth of knowledge on the subject—how hard could it be? So I put off writing and focused on other things.

I thought about my blog for several days and with the deadline looming, found myself suffering from a severe case of writer’s block. The pressure was on and my mind was blank. I had no idea what to write. I started talking to colleagues about creativity and of course they all had plenty of brilliant ideas. After several false starts, I was ready to try again so I got out my laptop, lifted the screen and placed my fingers on the keys. I sat there waiting for magic to happen.

Nothing happened.

Next, I did what any self-proclaimed creative person would do…I Googled it. “Creativity” had 120,000,000 results. This put my brain into a tailspin. “Is this IT?” I asked myself in the mirror. Is this the end of my creativity? Did it finally run out? Will the World Creative Organization revoke my membership and move me to the finance building? Will I ever have an original idea again?

I vomited.

My exuberance and over-confidence turned to despair. I was lost, not found. I was on a raft in the middle of the Pacific. I was in a public restroom with no toilet paper. Or worse, I was on an international flight without my iPad!

“What now?” you ask. Well, you tell me. Share your ideas this month on what creativity means to you. How do you find inspiration? How do you inspire others? What lessons have you learned about igniting creativity? What do you do when ideas run dry?

One of my favorite quotes about creativity is from best-selling author Eric Jerome Dickey who says, “It's impossible to explain creativity. It's like asking a bird, 'How do you fly?' You just do.”

I took his advice.