EMBRACE YOUR LIMITATIONS

Why would the gods be jealous of we mortals, the ancient Greeks used to ask.

After all, they have everything, as they sit sipping nectar in the Elysian fields.

We, though, have to struggle, to fight, to admit failure in our lives. And yet, the

poets tell us, they gaze down in envy. Why?

It’s because our limitations are actually the making of us. Working within the

constraints of our mortal frames gives us moral weight. It’s easy for a god to be

great. But human greatness is impressive because it arises against the odds.

This is a lesson that inspires Nicholas Nassim Taleb, the bestselling author of

The Black Swan

. The metaphor may be familiar. The black swan is the extreme,

unexpected thing that will destroy all your certainties, that all swans are white.

So, the trick is to be able to live in ‘extremistan’, the real world in which

uncertainties will catch you unawares and will expose you to your limitations.

To put it another way, the key to wisdom is not attempting to control everything,

which is like trying to overcome your limits. Believing you can is, in truth, an

excess of pride or a craving for power.

And because it can never be achieved, it will leave you stuck in a rut. Instead,

the trick is to recognise the thresholds of your knowledge, the constraints of

your ignorance, and turn them to your advantage.

Taleb also calls it making an omelette with broken eggs. It’s the things that are

imperfect that need to be embraced, as opposed to dreaming of a perfect world.

Take artists, who embrace the physical limitations of their materials to produce

masterpieces. Or composers who take on the limits inherent in the 12 notes of

the scale over which musical instruments range – just 12 notes! – to produce

sounds that moves us to tears.

They show that limitations are actually gifts. The apparently leaden strictures

are creative gold. There could be no pots without clay, painting without oils,

music without notes. So don’t lament your limitations. They are actually the key

to your success.

A bird might imagine that it’d be easier to fly in an atmosphere without air.

But it needs the friction and wind resistance to climb high into the sky.

Similarly, that which feels like it would drag you down is, in truth, that which

liberates you. Work out how to work it. Don’t fear the black swans. The gods

will be jealous once more

adapted from:The School Of Life's Guide to Realising Your Potential

The Fearless Eagle