How Limits Foster Creativity: Lessons from a Baker

I'm convinced that I would have no creative output at all if it weren't for limits. 

What? Limits are supposed to be a bad thing, right? How often do we wish to be unfettered, free, open to limitless possibilities? Yet in truth, my best efforts usually come when I'm constrained by limitations, forced to push up against boundaries that push back on me. 

The first time I really thought about this concept was when I read about French baker Lionel Poilane, in a book of short profiles entitled, "The Virtuoso: Face to Face with 40 extraordinary talents."

Poilane did not want to be a baker as his father was, but felt he had no choice, so when he was still a teenager he went into the family business. "But I was very, very unhappy, because my wish was to be in contact with all of society, not locked into a cellar," he says. 

But at the age of 20 he had an epiphany. "I found the major discovery that lit the rest of my life: whatever business you do, it's like a vehicle. The key was to put the world in my business!"

Poilane set out to become a "diplomat about bread," producing artisinal breads of the finest ingredients, teaching about the relationship between bread and civilization, and producing fanciful bread sculptures that attracted the attention of the likes of Salvador Dali. 

Today Poilane's breads are flown daily all over the world, and he relishes his work, all within the limits of being a baker. 

As I write this post, a steady ticking in the background comes from my phone, which is running the Pomodoro Time Management app, one of many ways to implement the Pomodoro Technique of productivity. I'm trying it out to see if timing myself in 25-minute increments can help keep me focused and on track for the things I want to do.

Every time my mind wanders to think maybe there is something else I might want to do besides finish this blog post, I am reminded of my self-imposed boundary that I said I would focus on doing only this for the next 25 minutes. If I told myself I had all day to do it, it would probably never get done!

Apparently one of Poilane's many bread sculptures is a birdcage made out of laquered bread. "The bird is inside the cage," Poilane says. "He is trapped and he can feed himself with his own barrier. ... After you are nourished with your own limits, you can fly to freedom."

Photo of Poilane bread courtesy edgeward via Flickr. Some rights reserved

Comments

[JoAnna]

I think it's limits imposed by outside forces that push me the hardest, not limits that I place on myself. "They" say "I can't," which only pushes me to prove them wrong.