The Tension of Limits

The speed limit is 45. Go slow enough and people see us as uncertain, confused and self centered...perhaps even worse. Exceed the limit enough and people see us arrogant, uncaring, reckless and self centered. Safe is somewhere in between. 

Much of life is this way. Fitting in at the acceptable pace gets us less attention, which is what most people hope for. 

On the road, driving within limits is the caring, responsible thing to do. But, in the context of our work, our creativity, our art and our leadership, limits are meant to be tested. In this sense, perhaps we should worry less about what the signs suggest and more about what we can do to change them.

The Leverage of a Constraint

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. And despite his incarceration, he chose to make a difference and continued to do his work. The Apollo 13 lunar landing mission incurred a catastrophic mechanical failure jeopardizing not only the mission, but the crew's life. And yet, against inconceivable odds, they reinvented the ship's life support system to return safely home.

Constraints are typically thought of as negative...something holding us back, keeping us from moving forward. We don’t have the funds, the time, the space, the right idea, the support, the health, etc.

Consider we might never move forward without constraints. Without constraints there is no need to go anywhere? There is no intent required to do anything. There are no problems to solve. And no solutions.

Instead of using a constraint as an excuse for not doing, not going, not starting, perhaps we should use the constraint as the provocation, the reason to leap and to become a creative. If we think of constraints more as levers, which we can choose to pull (or not), they're no longer constraints. They're opportunities to have an advantage.

And going just a bit further, what constraints can we create to help us move forward? If we keep ourselves from going there, perhaps we can go over here instead. Choose wisely. But, please do choose.