Your Biggest Challenge Is Your Secret Weapon
How to work with your limitations, not against them
Our society does a great job at inspiring, encouraging, and sometimes even demanding that we dream big and aim for uniqueness. I’ve fallen for it, too. I spent years of my life pushing myself to think as originally as I possibly could whenever I was brainstorming new art projects. But what I seem to learn over and over again is that the grand, super-original ideas I have, the ones that are truly outside the box, are also so far outside my realm of possibility that they’re almost useless.
So, at a certain point, I began to resist the idea of thinking wildly outside the box.
This small mental shift continues to have huge implications on my life and creativity. I decided: Instead of trying to shoot for the crazy huge idea and waiting months or years to do so, why not focus my creativity to work with what I have, and literally use the limitations of my life to push me creatively? When I realized this, it took my work to a transcendent place.
