Monday Memo #43
Find freedom in constraints.
The Monday memo is food for thought to fuel your week.
Hi everyone,
Creative work is like magic, pulling something out of nothing. The creator-magician transforms ideas into things that others can experience. Ideas can become anything. A book, a movie, a poem, a song, a business, a product… anything! And that infinite potential can be paralyzing.
When I was an art teacher I tried giving students an assignment where they could do anything. Use any material you like, I said. Go crazy, have fun. Guess what? The next week they all came in with the same thing: pencil drawings. Because that’s what they knew. Drawing with a pencil on a piece of paper.
Then I started giving them assignments with constraints. Paint a still life using these specific brushes and these four paint colors. Your still life has to include something wood, some cloth, something metallic and something made of glass.
The magic of creation — pulling something from nothing — requires constraints. The paradoxical truth is that constraints can be liberating. Throw some constraints at yourself.
Let’s take writing as an example. Here are a few constraints you could try:
Give yourself a time box. Can you write a story in under an hour?
Can you write a story using only the present tense?
Can you write a haiku?
Can you write a limerick?
Can you write a story as newspaper story or news report?
Can you write a story that’s a series of letters between two friends?
Can you write a ghost story?
Exercise.
Here’s your exercise for the week: Find freedom in constraints. Select a creative project and impose a limitation, such as a limited color palette, specific materials, a genre, or a short timeframe. Lean into this constraint, embrace it, and see what happens.
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