A couple of years ago I was playing music with a band. I got pretty into the music scene, played a few gigs, spent a lot of time playing and listening to music. Being the type of person that I am, I also did a lot of research. I’m not quite sure where I got it from, but I came across an idea that has very subtly changed my life. It is the counter intuitive claim that restrictions, or limitations, will set you free. See, in music, the limitations make the music. If I sit at a keyboard and randomly mash keys, there is no music. Nothing beautiful can happen.
However, if I restrict the amount of time I play the notes, and perhaps limit them to specific times, and if I contain the keys to certain chords, melodies, or certain tunes and rhythms, then we actually have music. The absence of freedom has given us the ability to create something beautiful. Likewise, if I try to sit and write a masterful novel, but have no direction, no purpose, and I’m not even sure what language it should be in, it creates a difficult writing position. If instead, I create for myself a limited topic (say, personal finance), then I suddenly have direction, and motivation, to write.
I’ve started to take this mantra, of freeing myself through limitation, and apply it to different areas of my life. Sometimes I’ll arrive at a conclusion only to realize I’ve already been beat to it, and in this case, personal finance gurus have been exploring for decades how freeing some limitations can be. For example, how creative do you think you can be in your kitchen when you only have three dollars and what’s left in your pantry? How out of the box do you think when you need a Halloween costume but are stuck with whatever is already in your closet? This is a simple concept, one that we’ve been living with for years, one that empowers and frees us – but it is one that we, for some reason, actively seek to destroy.
Is that not the purpose to collecting wealth? So that we won’t be “tied down” anymore? So that we can eat whatever we want, wherever we want? So we can go on vacation whenever we want? So that we can free ourselves from the slavery of being limited in our desires? Did we ever stop and think that being limited is a good thing? It is not counter cultural to think “Nope, I think I’m good with this salary. I don’t need a raise, but thank you”?
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the pursuit of more income. In fact, if you are in debt, that is by far the best way to get out debt. Instead, what I am saying is to enjoy and embrace the limitations – not just so that you can relax and bask in your current financial state – but so that you can actively pursue those limitations for your own benefit. For example, lets say you do happen to have worked hard enough for long enough to earn a raise. What happens to those extra dollars? Did you need them to get by two weeks ago? Two months ago? Well, probably not. Sure, they might help, but you’ve been surviving on that wage long enough, can you not survive a few more months? Instead of throwing that money into your chequing account alongside the rest of your paycheck, determine the difference and set up an automatic savings withdrawal to a high interest account for the days you get paid. When you get paid, the difference gets transferred away. You are banking money, but it is like nothing ever happened, nothing ever changed.
If you are real clever, you won’t be content just by waiting for raises and banking the difference. You’ll cut expenses and bank the difference there too. Cut out eating out once a week and bump up your withdrawal $30. Restrict how many DVDs you purchase and do the same. If you want to double down, limit your cable TV and drop the difference to your savings account. You’ll find that you spend less time wondering what’s on television and spend less money for the privilege of channel surfing.
The notion that limitations are bad, and all that jazz, is a broken concept that has been ingrained within most of us from a young age. Rebel against it, embrace the restrictions that life provides, and find some of your own to capitalize on the advantages that being limited provides. What have you intentionally chosen to limit?
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