Living a Life of Limitations

by Jared Nelson

Is life just a series of limitations? 

I’m sure you can imagine some limitations in your own life. I know I can. Like growing up in a small town in central Illinois. It was a village technically. My world felt so small when I was a kid, but this is one of those things that I’ve come around to actually appreciating. As I grew up, my perimeter of knowing kept slowly expanding from the woods bordering my neighborhood to the creek that flowed under the interstate. Driving out of state felt like a blur. One location to the next without much acknowledgment of the space in between. Starting somewhere small gave me the drive to seek out new places instead of being somewhere that had any opportunity I could want right in front of me. 

This word limitation usually has a negative feeling to it. Some of us have the mindset that anything is possible and that a limit is hindering us in one way or another. This could be true, but in the end we will always face a limitation of some sort, in one way or another, even if it doesn’t feel like a limitation. Seeing it as something that is part of your life journey; something that changes your course of action. 

For a not so serious example, but one that felt pretty serious to me, was a limitation I faced while being overseas for the first time. It was our first day in Chiang Mai. While walking the streets with a camera around my neck, I must have tugged too hard on the strap when it slipped loose and tumbled lens first to the concrete. This was the only camera I brought on the trip and the only lens. Lesson learned there. But somehow the camera wasn’t broke and the only damage was my zoom lens getting stuck on one focal length. That set my limitation. But it also set my perspective, literally and metaphorically. I could have been devastated by no longer having a full range of zoom to capture this new place I was in. It’s a good thing I like 35mm. But immediately I was relieved that I at least still had a working camera for the trip that just began. Looking back at the photos now, I can also see that being limited to that 35mm gave me a chance to document my surroundings as I experienced them. I didn’t waste time getting caught up in what focal length to use, because I didn’t even have the option. 

So many conveniences in our modern day make it so we have seemingly endless options of what to do with our time. I know that for me this can be daunting when making certain decisions. It’s usually the decision that sets a limitation that then sets the course. All of this to say, there’s nothing wrong with limitations. You can actually look at it as being what makes each persons life uniquely theirs. How “limitations” create twists and turns in your experience. Limiting one aspect so that another can arise. Sounds simple and obvious - it is. You can either work with the limits or push back at them. Both are good options.