Using Limitations

It’s been one of my bad weeks, which means I’ve had plenty of time to sit around and think. Think of all the things I want to or ought to be doing, and of a dozen wonderful ideas that I would love to do someday but doubt I’ll ever have the energy for.

Limitations force creativity. This is true in most artistic endeavors. Some professional photographers occasionally shoot with a very limited camera to force themselves to focus on creative composition. Poetry, by its very nature, is all about limitations. Some of the world’s greatest composers have been blind. Today, disabled people paint beautiful pictures with their mouths, their feet.

I wish I could learn to use my physical limitations to my advantage. I wish my pain and fatigue would force me to focus on the essentials, on the things that matter, would force me to use my resources creatively and effectively. But for some reason I find the application hard to make.

Have you learned to use a limitation to expand your abilities or effectiveness? I’d love to hear about it – maybe I’ll get inspired.

Tags: creativity, fibromyalgia, limitations, weakness