Embrace Constraints

Constraints can be liberating. When you're doing creative work, the total space of all possibilities is so vast that it’s unworkable. You have to carve off one tiny little sector, and think inside the box. The same is true when you zoom out to the scale of an entire life, but this is not obvious until all the constraints are removed: you don’t know

We all know that constraints are often the driver of it all. Without constraints we would not be able to do anything.

The very concept of a limit implies that you can’t do everything you want—so we must think of smarter ways to work. Let’s be honest: Many of us don’t make this kind of adjustment until we are required to. Limits force us to rethink how we are working and push us to new heights of creativity.

When there are no material, time, and budget constraints, you have unlimited options. When you accept limitations, your range of choices is reduced. Whether imposed by design or by necessity, it’s helpful to see limitations as opportunities.

The constraints of the medium, then, are the constraints of our embodiment, or at least that is my proposition to you. And these are, in part, the constraints of place and time. I can only be here now, and I can be here now only for so long, which means there are only so many things to which I can meaningfully attend at length and at depth. I may c

Constraints, it turns out, also provide us with a unique opportunity to discover and employ our strengths in a way that enriches. Constraints alter the path that we take, even in the instances in which they make us feel like we have no options.