The Power of Positive Contraints
Image by kevinthoule via Flickr
I would like to talk about positive constraints and how they can improve your life! Inspired by Timothy Ferriss’ post talking about new office environments and the positive constraints in his own work environment, I started thinking how I could apply this to my own life.
First, you have to understand that by limiting your options, you can limit how you naturally deviate from your own goals. To channel this for results, you have to selectively choose what you allow into your attention environment and actively block things that will disrupt the flow to success.
For example, when I am trying to work on creating my business website, I have often been distracted by online entertainment such as Youtube, Facebook, Meebo, and RSS Feeds. I use LeechBlock in Firefox to block a list of sites I have found myself to wonder to over and over again in the past for a set period of time. I call this my productivity time. Whenever I am in this time period, I am totally focused on my work and have kept my working environment free of known distractions.
Another example is losing weight. I almost always never buy snacks or junk food because I know I have the tendency to scarf down more than I intend to. Just by deciding not to walk down the isle of junk food in the supermarket is enough to build this positive constraint. I also stay away from watching TV for long periods of time and instead opt to get out of the house and do active sports such as rock climbing and basketball. This is because I know if I stay at home, I’ll most likely spend my time in a chair behind a computer or in front of a TV.
The theory of positive constraints is that within an unlimited environment of distractions at the tip of your finger, the only way to fight it is to take yourself out of situations that can hinder you from your true goals. Build positive constraints and flow to your success!
