In defense of limitations

There is something about limitations that brings out creativity and forward moving. It’s that thing that happens when you get closer to a deadline: you have to just get the thing done. Or, in creative endeavors, it’s the physical constraints or thematic focus: it is somehow easier to write an essay with an assigned subject than an essay about anything at all.

I am finding this truth in our preparations for our now fast approaching cross-Atlantic move. We clear out closets, repair furniture, and purchase replacement items for stuff that long since served its purpose, stopped working, or should have been fixed. It is somehow easier to drag things to the dry-cleaner or turn pictures in for framing when there is little time left. It truly feels like it is now or never, and so, if it matters at all, it is now.

Nothing new in this. We have all known it since school: that last minute thrust of activity the night before the exam. The question I am sitting with is one of partial acceptance.

I am used to seeing procrastination and last-minute efforts as a failure of sort. Why don’t I just even out the pressure over time? What prevented me from doing this ages ago?

But I am realizing now that maybe it is not only OK but better this way. I will never be a person who does things at the very last minute — I need a minimum of spaciousness for breathing — but time and other pressures add an element of accountability that means whatever I am doing feels more real. I want to say it feels more relational too: I am not alone in my endeavors. I am fitting them around limitations determined by the time, interest, and resources of others too.

Very few of us are so privileged that what we do is 100% determined by our own will and desires. And to be honest, those who are, appear to get it wrong most of the time. There is a balance, of course. We all need space to be ourselves and choose for ourselves. But at the end of the day, the limitations that come from considering others can only be positive.