Can’t Do It? Great!!

It is often spoken that when limited, we become truly creative. We think creatively to overcome the obstacles set before us. I got to thinking today about what this means for someone early-on in their learning of a subject. If we lack the skills necessary to complete a piece of work, can we see that as a good thing? Will our creativity help us work around our knowledge gap?

What, then, happens as we learn more? Let’s take it to the ultimate – when we master a subject (if that is possible). I wonder if we then cease to be creative. Perhaps the ability to do anything would actually prevent us creating anything particularly good……? I guess it would depend on our ability to impose other limitations upon ourselves.

I have seen lots of people avoid doing a project because they feel that it is beyond what they can achieve with their current level of skill. I have always tried to encourage them to try anyway because I believe that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. But thinking about things in terms of what I’m talking about in this post, I think it is actually important to embark only upon projects that are beyond our ability. In doing so we impose a massive limit on ourselves that we are then forced to negotiate with our creativity.