Athlete or astronaut?

In their fascinating book on how wit is used in graphic design - A Smile in the Mind - authors Beryl McAlhone and David Stuart, when discussing the limits of using wit in marketing and design, say-

"We are not in an athletics situation, where performance limits must be near. We are in a space travel situation, where we are so far from the limits we can't even know where they are..."

How do you relate to this in the context of your own creative abilities or ventures?

Are you a trying to write a novel "just as good as" your favourite author?

Do you want your next painting to be "as involving as" a classic work by a painter you yourself highly admire?

Is your new musical composition "nearly as accomplished as" the musician you hold up as a hero?

In other words, are you trying to reach, or surpass, a limit you're already familiar with? Do you have a set idea of what's good and use this as your measuring stick?

Then maybe you could describe this perspective as similar to the athletics situation in the quote above. There are already limits, records or standards, and you're aiming towards these.

Or maybe you're a space traveller?

You have no idea of the limitations of your creativity and don't want to know. You want to stretch your creativity as far as possible, time and time again, reaching further and further out into your own unknown "deep space".

There are no boundaries to hold you back, no standards or rules to restrict you or to censor your artistic output. You are free to pursue your creative ideas as far as you want. And then go even further.

So think carefully about how you'd describe YOURself as a creative artist?

Are you an athlete or an astronaut?