‘As the saying goes: “Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them.”’ – Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot lately – I’m actually loving this entire book. It is so inspirational for me! I’ve been acquiring many books lately through yoga teacher training recommendations. For many of them, I only have time to thumb through, grasp the big picture, and store away for later when I will be able to take the time to read through them word for word. Big Magic is a great book to read in this way though, because you read a passage and then break away to go to whatever it inspired you to do!
Back to the point. Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them. When I think about this quote, I think about how easy it is to make excuses for why things are the way they are, or why you are the way you are. It’s so much more challenging to decide to change your mind. But maybe you wake up one day and decide that public speaking is going to be fun from now on, or that you are the kind of person who can project their voice well, or that rather than being afraid of heights you find them to be adventurous and exhilarating. There is one more step, after you have changed your mind. You need to work with the tools that will make you more comfortable and skilled, with time, practice, and tenacity.
Imagine what happens when you encounter resistance. There is a wall in front of you. It is hard and firm, possibly made of bricks. There is no way to go through or around or over this wall, as life brings you up against it again and again.
Look at the landscape around you. What can you do to shift the ground beneath you? How can you change so that this wall is not such a wall? I like to think of ocean waves crashing against a jetty. As the tide builds, eventually it flows over and the jetty is submerged, absorbed beneath currents strongly rolling, freely.
– All Photography (c) Chris –