Your inspirations had limitations too

For some reason, we tend to believe that our creative inspirations had perfect conditions while they were creating. We think they achieved exactly what they hoped for—that they brought their imagination to life just as it existed in their minds. 

This is not true. 

Every creative act has limitations. Limitations of skill, knowledge, time, money, focus, perspective, gear, connections. We try to mimic these creations, and complain because we don’t have the exact conditions they did. We fail to recognize they had their own set of limitations, and they also couldn’t achieve exactly what they had in their minds. 

This became clear to me when Taylor Swift re-recorded her albums as “Taylor’s Version.” Specifically, the guitar groove on her song Style (one of the great pop songs of the era) just isn’t the same. It’s not as good. Even with the best studios in the world, with the most talented session players throwing everything they can at recreating her songs verbatim, they couldn’t get the groove right on Style. Time is infinitely divisible. A groove is as unique as a fingerprint. Whoever played guitar on the original in 2014 had a groove in their bones that just can’t be recreated. 

When you look at a shot from a Christopher Nolan movie, you might be thinking to yourself “I wish I had the crew he had, and could shoot on the cameras he could.” Sure, we all do. But Nolan’s shots have a different set of limitations. He’s directing actors  with mammoth egos. He’s under immense pressure from studios to make another blockbuster. Everything he’s ever created had its own set of limitations. 

Your limitations are your gift. They are the waters you must sail today. Great artists don’t only sail in good conditions—they sail every day in any condition, and make the most of it.