What Can Limits Offer Us?

I remember in school when an essay was assigned, and it limited us to 500 words. I felt so trapped by the few paragraphs on my page. I let my mind wander to what I could do with 1,000 words.

I run into similar situations now in the workplace when I need to figure out a solution to a problem and stay within a budget or time frame. My gut reaction is to push back on these restrictions, to imagine what could be built with twice the money and time.  I think about how easy it would be to solve a problem at least five other ways without these limitations.

However, the real question is: What does having these limitations offer us?

Limits make our grand ideas actionable. Think of your limits as tools you have been given to build your solution. Sure, it’s easy to think about how you could solve any problem with a premier $30,000 solution, and if the budget is only $500, the challenge will then be how to get the same or near the same results with less? While this may seem daunting, when dealing with limits we can take a tip from MacGyver and make something happen from the unexpected.

So next time you have a problem and feel trapped by your limits, think about how you can redefine them and use them to help build a stronger solution. How can the same budget push you to be creative with the resources that you already have?

You may just wind up discovering a totally new way of doing things.