It took me 4 months to publish this post. The reason? No fucking reason.
This post has nothing in particular. It’s not hard to write. Doesn’t need much research or preparation. And isn’t something close to my heart to justify the postponing.
But this post happens to be the 100th post in this blog. And that’s the beginning of the problem. Or at least, the problem I created. I wanted to do something crazy, memorable, and awesome to celebrate this milestone.
So I started looking for novel ideas! And as a result, I started ditching many normal ideas (like this one) to find that gem. The one perfect idea to celebrate the 100 blog post. And I kept doing it for 4 months.
In summary, I created an artificial constraint for myself. It’s not imposed by the environment, circumstances, or anything else. I’m the constraint. I created it.
Last week, I ran 10km for the first time in my life, a milestone I thought impossible to break. I’ve run 5km before, and I felt more than that is for athletes and “active individuals”, but I was wrong. Yet again, I created an artificial constraint for myself. And I believed it for years.
And just before that run, I’ve done a 12km bicycle session. Another milestone I thought was impossible!
The succession of events in the past weeks made me realize how we stop ourselves and create artificial constraints that limit us. I’m pretty sure there are many more in my life, and I believe you’ll find some in your life too.
But now, let’s get ready to break those constraints one after the other.
2 responses to “Artificial constraints”
This is such a great observation. I catch myself doing the same thing, for example a post 1 year after a big event. It often doesn’t get written/published because I put too much pressure on myself. I’ll think of this next time and “just ship it!”
[…] When I started, I was not looking for a crazy running pace or some world records to aim for, I was just challenging myself to break some mental barriers. […]