Don’t Feel Limited By Your Limitations

{flickr photo by gerardov}

Feel limited by your limitations? Don’t. Your limitations can free you and provide hints to your calling.

How?

I’m reading this book at turtle speed because that’s how much I love it. It’s called Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Gregg Levoy. And in it, Levoy talks about the power of our so-called limitations.

Here’s what I mean:

“Limitation can impede growth, but it can also induce it. In environments with little water, plants developed spines. People who lose one of their senses often find that the others are heightened…Criticism can teach you to rely on your own intuition…Personal tragedy can propel you to start up an organization to help others who have suffered the same fate.”

Levoy says that limitations become our strengths because it forces us to find creative ways to deal with them.

If you are feeling limited by your limitations, try opening yourself up to the possibility of its potential.

Don’t have a degree in art? Neither do I. But I try to get away from that by focusing on my intuition and by practicing my craft.

Don’t know what your purpose in life is? Think about the moments that moved you, that defined who you are. Was it your critical parents, the job you hated, the sickness that impacted your family? Usually it was those moments that provide hints to your calling.

I am a living breathing example of finding power through limitations. I grew up in a small town in a negative environment with not a lot of resources. As an adult, I was continually tested on my faith. I took jobs I hate, dealt with critical family and friends, and it all taught me the importance of self-worth, passion, purpose and defining your own life instead of having someone define it for you.

If you look deep within at all of your limitations, you may find the answers you are looking for. You may find yourself. Search deep enough and you will find your calling in life.