How Your Limitations Create Space for Creativity to Thrive
Forget what you don’t have, embrace what you do.
It’s ancient news that as long as you live, you’ll have obstacles.
And for creatives, the biggest obstacles we have to face besides limiting beliefs are our lack of resources.
The majority of creatives have had to face the fact that they do not possess the tools, energy, or time they need for a certain piece of work.
This common situation has been an excuse to not create for many creatives throughout history, including myself. On the surface, it does make sense that lacking certain resources can hinder your work.
If a chef doesn’t have a knife to cut the spices, it’d be difficult to have that meal done.
If a carpenter doesn’t have a screwdriver to assemble the parts of furniture, the task becomes harder to complete. And the same can be said for creative work.
However, for creatives, the case is special because of one word: creativity. Our work is influenced by creativity. We can have or lack the time, energy, or resources, but what we can access at any moment is creativity.
Connect the dots
As Steve Jobs said,
“Creativity is just connecting things”
Let’s have dots represent things.
Dots are scattered. There is no connection between them. Yet, creatives are able to see where they connect to create a piece. They notice how parts of certain dots will fit with parts of other dots.
Fortunately, some dots have already been connected in numerous ways. As a result, creatives do not have to make those same connections.
But the issue comes when creatives believe that the way those dots were connected in the past is the only way. There is no other way you can connect those dots if you don’t follow that particular way.
If the initial way of connecting the dots using a Canon EOS R5 camera, you have to use a Canon EOS R5 to get it done.
If the initial way of connecting the dots was in Los Angeles, CA, you have to live in LA to get the results.
If the initial way of connecting the dots was made by a 19-year-old with a nice upbringing, you must be 19 and come from a nice upbringing.
And that is fortunately wrong.
Back to the Steve Jobs quote,
“Creativity is the ability to connect things.”
You cannot connect what you don’t have, but you surely can connect what you do have. Nobody has all the dots. We all have certain dots and lack some others.
Hence, we are and can only connect the dots we have. The beauty in that is creativity doesn’t need the dots you do not have. All you need is all you have.
Don’t have red? Use blue
As one of the most creative artists of all time, Pablo Picasso said,
“If I don’t have red, I use blue.”
No wonder he was able to paint 10,000+ canvases. And no wonder he’s considered one of the most creative artists of all time.
Pablo Picasso knew that not having a certain color couldn’t be an excuse to not create. He understood that creativity only needs what you have. To worry about what you do not have doesn’t lead you to a solution. And it doesn’t make you any more creative. It just strays your focus away from creating.
To create is to be creative. In using the blue, Picasso remained in his path of growth as a creative. Moreover, in the process, he discovered new ways to connect dots, ways he couldn’t discover if he waited on having the red and repeating what was done in the past.
When you don’t have your red, it sucks. You think about how you could have completed the work faster, better, or in a more professional way. Yet, all those who used or waited to have the red mostly had the same results.
But if you use your blue, you might get interesting results, results that can set you apart.
You might not have the red to paint blood, but what if painting the blood blue would send a different and more poignant message?
You might not have the red to color the fire, but what if using blue would increase the beauty of the piece?
You might not have the red to finish that task, but what if embracing the blue would change the process for the better?
Yes, it won’t be easy. You won’t instantly know what to do with your blue. You’ll have to think and try things out. And in those moments is the very place where creativity unfolds, where the dots connect.
At the end of the day, Picasso would have not been influential if he had and repeated the things his predecessors had and did.
See the Positives
Of course, not everything we have seems positive at first.
You might have your dots. However, when you look at them, you can’t help but notice how swollen they are. You might have your blue. However, when you touch it, you can’t help but notice the subtle green tint. And that’s understandable.
Everything has its positive and negative side. Or we can rephrase it and say everything has its positive blue dots and negative blue dots.
Just like focusing on what you don’t have, creativity is not born by looking at the negatives of what you have. You won’t be able to connect any dots when all you see are the negatives of your blue dots. And those parts cannot connect because they are everything you see as limitations.
Therefore, you have to focus on the positive ones. And you have to write down the positives of what you see as negative.
By doing so, it forces you to be clever, to dissect problems, instead of throwing excuses and procrastination at them, and to innovate instead of imitating previous creatives or “better” equipped creatives.
You forge a new path and make new connections and you become more creative than you were. And you come up with something so creative you want to repeat it in the future or even your peers see what you created and deem it to be the right way, the right connection they should follow.
From connecting the dots to using blue to seeing the positives
All of this would not happen if you chose to focus and accept being blocked by your limitations.
When it comes to creativity, there is not a wrong way or a right way to create. The results depend on how you approach your work.
Do you approach it by drowning in your lack? Or do you approach it by embracing your disadvantages and letting creativity thrive in your limitations?
The choice is yours.
