Limitations Are Good For You

While we all dreamt of having the limitless freedom to be and do anything and everything we want, the hard truth is that we can’t and even if we could, we would be disappointed with the end result.

Take Twitter for an example. With the availability of services like Twitlonger and Deck.ly on Tweetdeck, users are presented with the opportunity to tweet longer than 140 characters. But do we really want that? Not me. I feel that the beauty of Twitter is the character limitation itself; it helps me think in a clear and succinct way prior to posting an update.

The same applies to running. If you set a limit to the length of time you’re running today and the distance you would like to cover, you’re far more likely to hit that limit than if you had run at your own time, own target.

We like pushing ourselves to the limit but if there is none, we tend to switch off and declare that we have done enough without really trying.

If you want your best users to do more, one way to do it is to announce the most they can do. While this may dissuade a few people from pushing ever farther, it will in fact motivate a large number of people to up their game. – Seth Godin