Limitations And Innovation
Going past the limitations of society or your peer group can help you solve problems that nobody has looked at yet. And that’s how some of the most successful startups start.
Try to brainstorm a list of business ideas that go slightly beyond the limits of whatever you thought before.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
- Questioning everything. Writing if the answers come up different than you thought.
- Writing about what made you feel a certain way, or shameful things you learned from.
- Contacting people “out of your league”.
- Exploring and experiencing new ideas and things or breaking with expectations.
- Assuming you’re an expert until you’re proven otherwise so you can find your limits.
Sometimes expanding your limits means you get to live a larger life in every way: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Conversely, some limitations are very real and, although they may change someday, sometimes it’s just better to let them be and work around them.
Try to explore your limits in every category every day. But, if a limitation doesn’t affect much your life, don’t stress yourself trying to overcome it.
The more you push at your limitations the more the world becomes your canvas. Art helps people see the world in a different way.
To make the world your canvas, try to think of people who you can help today. Then the world starts to shape itself according to your own limitations, instead of the other way around.
Doing something new every day, something you never would’ve thought of doing, exercises your brain and makes you more intelligent.
By doing something different, you are lighting up new areas of your brain, forcing the neurons and synapses to connect in new ways, forestalling Alzheimer's and other effects of aging that rage against the brain and against the future quality of life.
Our fear of social condemnation is a limitation imposed on us by society. But it is also a source of excitement, as evidenced by the popularity of media portraying characters breaking social expectations.
Exploring the edge of your fear is the only way to learn and improve and to combat the brainwashing that society constantly imposes on you.
RELATED IDEAS
- You only have half an hour to exercise? That is your limitation. Put those 30 minutes to proper use.
- Can you only spare 15 minutes each day to write? That is the size of your constraint. Your job is to make it a work of art.
- You only have $100 to start your business? Great! Make each sales call work for you.
We can complain about our limits or use them. How you use that constraint is up to you.
1. Success comes from the approval of others.
2. Failure is a source of shame.
3. You depend on authority.
We tend to see solitude as grim and imprisoning. But in fact, the exact opposite can be true. Solitude can be seen as freeing, as an opportunity for exploration and growth.
It’s good for us to spend time exploring unknowns by ourselves. It gives us an opportunity to discover who we really are and what life is all about.