Category: My Blog Posts

The Magic of Limitations

How limitations can become the unexpected springboard for creativity and innovation

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If you go back a few hundred years, what we take for granted today would seem like magic – being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, flying, accessing vast amounts of data like an oracle. These are all things that would have been considered magic a few hundred years ago.

– Elon Musk

I learned an important lesson a few years ago from a design leader working at Apple. He said the more constraints you have, the more magical your designs tend to become. This post is intended to take you through what I’ve learned thus far as a result of that encounter, and hopefully allow you to see life’s limitations as a springboard of possibilities.

Growing up I loved the concept of magic and owned a few magic kits. I never got to put my magic to work in front of a large audience until a traveling magic show came to perform at our elementary school. Every teacher was asked to pick a student from their class to be in the show. I was selected and I have to admit I was apprehensive as I have always been quite introverted. I did however love the idea of being able to try out a newly learned trick and finally having an audience, even if it was the entire school.

My First Magic Performance

That morning I met with the magic company so they could teach me and the others who were chosen how to perform all of the tricks for the show later that afternoon. I was paired up with another boy to do an escape from a large trunk. The trick was they would put the other boy inside of the trunk, lock it, and I would stand on top of the trunk to “ensure he couldn’t escape.” The magician placed a hula hoop attached to a curtain around us so the audience couldn’t see us for a few moments and then “magically” the boy inside the trunk would appear on top of it. I would also magically disappear.

What the audience didn’t know was the trunk did lock as a volunteer from the audience proved, but on the inside was a small lever that allowed the person inside to unlock it. Luckily the trick went off without a hitch, I disappeared, and my schoolmates were amazed or at least entertained.

I’m in my mid-thirties now so it has been quite a few years since that show but even in my professional years, I’m still intrigued by the concept of magic. Most companies who offer their customers an experience have used the word magic in their products. Disney is one of the most famous companies that like to make its customers forget their problems by bringing them back to their childhood as soon as they enter the gates. Disneyland has even branded itself “The Magic Kingdom” and it is hard to walk away from your experience at one of their parks or media properties without feeling the magic.

Where things get interesting in the professional world is when you limit yourself because time and time again I’ve found those constraints to be what drives some of the most creative things I’ve done.

Magical Web Design

When you give a web designer 1280+ pixels to design a desktop-centric website they won’t hesitate to fill the page with features and content because they have the space to do so. If you however give that same designer 640px (iPhone resolution etc) they tend to stop and reconsider every pixel because they are now space constrained. The less space you have to work with, the more difficult it is to meet the user’s needs. Those consuming your design will expect magical things to happen with each interaction because interacting with a smaller device, say a phone, is oftentimes more difficult for them.

In the webspace, it is interesting because if I was to ask you to think of the last website you went to that you would describe as “magical” you might have a difficult time, right? However, if I was to ask you to tell me about a time when you interacted with your smartphone and it did something “magical” you would have no problem thinking of an example.

Shazam

Being able to hold up my phone within the proximity of a song playing and have it tell me the artist and song title was magical.

Uber

If you are not familiar with Uber it allows you to get transportation, often within a few minutes, right from the tap of a button on your smartphone. You can see how long it will take for your ride to arrive, where it is on a map, and as soon as you get out of the car you are instantly billed.

Magical Writing

I’ve always been someone who loves to write, but often find myself jumping from idea to idea rarely publishing most drafts. I have found the projects with a deadline, or often, a sudden deadline are those I tend to finish. The reason why projects with deadlines likely get finished as compared with the others is you will be held accountable for meeting that deadline, or in other words, you now have a fixed constraint. When writing try and give yourself a deadline to finish or give yourself rules like not being able to use the backspace key to free write your first draft.

Magical Video Moments

In the past when I’ve had to create videos it is usually designed to educate and entertain the audience. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve created something I thought was fantastic only to be told to “cut the length in half.” I’ve heard things like “people these days don’t have time to watch a five-minute video” or “it has to be a minute or less.” What is interesting is although I initially liked the unedited 5-minute video, time after time the final video tends to be better because of the constraints I was provided.

General Creativity

“We need to first be limited in order to become limitless.”

– Phil Hansen

One of my favorite examples of someone who has been able to leverage a constraint in life to make something magical is Phil Hansen who “developed an unruly tremor in his hand that kept him from creating the pointillist drawings he loved. Hansen was devastated, floating without a sense of purpose. Until a neurologist made a simple suggestion: embrace this limitation…and transcend it.”

Embrace the Shake | Phil Hansen | TED Talks

Your Magical Findings

Have you found life’s limitations have helped you create magical moments? Tell me about your experience in the comments below.

If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it with others who might benefit from embracing their constraints.

The Psychology of Self-Imposed Challenges

Why humans intentionally create obstacles and how these “walls” drive our growth and satisfaction

Children building a foam wall in a trampoline park

When given a simple foam pit to jump into, these children created their own challenge by building a wall to overcome

A few months ago, I took my son to a trampoline park and witnessed something fascinating. The facility provided a simple foam pit for children to jump into—a fun activity by most standards. Yet within minutes, something remarkable happened: the children had gathered foam blocks to construct a wall at the edge of the pit, creating an obstacle they would need to clear with each jump.

No one instructed them to do this. No one suggested that jumping into a pit wasn’t challenging enough. They instinctively created a harder version of the activity, turning a straightforward pleasure into a meaningful challenge.

This spontaneous behavior perfectly illustrates a concept I learned in a gamification class taught by Mario Herger: humans don’t just tolerate obstacles—we actively seek them out. We are, by nature, challenge-seeking creatures who derive profound satisfaction from overcoming difficulties, even ones we’ve created ourselves.

The Paradox of Voluntary Challenges

There’s something paradoxical about our relationship with obstacles. In many aspects of life, we strive to eliminate barriers and create efficiency. We develop technologies to make tasks easier, create shortcuts to save time, and remove friction from processes. Yet simultaneously, we go out of our way to create challenges for ourselves.

Consider the seemingly irrational choices we make in the name of challenge:

  • Marathon runners who could travel 26.2 miles by car but choose to run instead
  • Chess players who could use computers to find perfect moves but prefer to struggle through the complexity themselves
  • Hikers who seek out the steepest, most difficult trails rather than easier paths
  • Gamers who increase difficulty levels once they’ve mastered the basics

This seeming contradiction reveals a fundamental truth about human psychology: we don’t necessarily want the easiest path—we want the optimal level of challenge that stretches our abilities without overwhelming them. Ease doesn’t satisfy us nearly as much as earned achievement.

The Psychology Behind Challenge-Seeking

Why do we engage in this seemingly counterintuitive behavior? Psychologists and neuroscientists have identified several reasons humans are naturally drawn to challenges:

  • Flow State: Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified that we experience our greatest satisfaction in a state called “flow”—the perfect balance between challenge and skill where we become fully immersed in an activity
  • Dopamine Response: Our brains release rewarding neurochemicals when we overcome challenges, creating a natural incentive to seek out and conquer obstacles
  • Skill Development: Challenges push us to develop new capabilities and expand our boundaries
  • Social Comparison: Overcoming obstacles provides measurable ways to gauge our abilities against others and ourselves over time

“Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.” This observation from psychologist Carl Jung captures how integral challenge is to our psychological well-being. Without meaningful obstacles to overcome, we often feel adrift and unstimulated.

Designed Challenges vs. Self-Imposed Challenges

Challenges come in two primary forms: those designed for us and those we create ourselves. Both serve important functions in driving engagement and satisfaction.

Designed Challenges are intentionally created by others to engage us. Examples include:

  • The carefully placed sand traps on golf courses that make the game more difficult but also more engaging
  • Video game levels that progressively increase in difficulty to match player skill development
  • Academic curricula designed to challenge students at the edge of their capabilities
  • Corporate objectives that stretch employee performance beyond comfortable limits

Self-Imposed Challenges, like the foam wall built by the children at the trampoline park, emerge from our own initiative:

  • Athletes who set personal goals beyond what competition requires
  • Musicians who attempt more difficult pieces than necessary for their performances
  • Writers who impose constraints like word limits or challenging structures
  • Hobbyists who continually raise their standards of excellence

What’s particularly interesting is that self-imposed challenges often emerge even within environments that already contain designed challenges—we instinctively calibrate difficulty to our optimal level.

The Goldilocks Zone of Challenge

Not all challenges are created equal. The most engaging obstacles exist in what we might call the “Goldilocks zone”—not too easy, not too hard, but just right for our current abilities.

Too little challenge leads to boredom and disengagement. When tasks require minimal effort relative to our skills, we quickly lose interest. This explains why the children at the trampoline park weren’t satisfied with simply jumping into the foam pit—it didn’t challenge them enough to maintain engagement.

Conversely, too much challenge results in frustration and anxiety. When obstacles seem insurmountable, we’re likely to give up entirely. The ideal challenge stretches us enough to require effort and growth but remains within the realm of possible achievement.

Effective gamification harnesses this principle by dynamically adjusting challenge levels to match user capabilities. The most engaging games, educational programs, and fitness applications constantly recalibrate difficulty to keep users in this optimal zone of engagement.

Challenge as a Path to Growth

Perhaps the most profound aspect of our challenge-seeking behavior is how it drives personal growth. By continuously engaging with obstacles at the edge of our capabilities, we naturally expand those capabilities over time.

The principle operates across various domains of human experience:

  • Physical Development: Progressive overload in exercise—gradually increasing weight, duration, or intensity—builds strength and endurance
  • Cognitive Growth: Tackling increasingly complex problems expands our mental capabilities and problem-solving skills
  • Emotional Resilience: Managing challenging situations builds our capacity to handle stress and adversity
  • Creative Expansion: Working within constraints often forces innovative thinking and novel solutions

The foam wall the children built wasn’t just about immediate enjoyment—it was unconsciously serving their developmental needs by creating opportunities to test and expand their physical capabilities.

Finding Your Foam Wall

The children’s foam wall serves as a powerful metaphor for the challenges we need in our own lives. Just as they instinctively created an obstacle that made their activity more engaging and growth-promoting, we too need to identify and construct the right challenges for ourselves.

Consider these questions when seeking your optimal challenges:

  • What is your current skill level? Honest assessment helps identify challenges that will stretch but not overwhelm you
  • What feels both exciting and slightly intimidating? The sweet spot often comes with both enthusiasm and a touch of anxiety
  • Are you growing or maintaining? If you find yourself comfortably executing the same skills without improvement, your challenges may be insufficient
  • What constraints could make your current activities more engaging? Sometimes adding limitations (time, resources, methods) can transform routine tasks into meaningful challenges

The most fulfilling challenges are often those aligned with our intrinsic motivations and values. When obstacles serve meaningful personal goals rather than external validation, they become powerful drivers of both satisfaction and growth.

Building Better Obstacles

The wisdom of children building foam walls reminds us that challenges aren’t merely obstacles to overcome—they’re essential components of engagement, satisfaction, and growth. Without them, even inherently enjoyable activities quickly lose their appeal.

This understanding has profound implications across contexts. Parents and educators can design better learning experiences by calibrating challenges to children’s developing abilities. Business leaders can create more engaging work environments by providing appropriately difficult objectives. And individually, we can enhance our own fulfillment by consciously designing and seeking the right level of challenge in our personal and professional lives.

The next time you find yourself bored with an activity or feeling stagnant in your growth, remember the children at the trampoline park. Perhaps what you need isn’t to eliminate obstacles but to build better ones—your own foam walls that transform simple pleasures into meaningful challenges and catalysts for growth.

Join the Conversation

What “foam walls” have you built in your life? Have you ever created self-imposed challenges that enhanced your engagement or growth? Or do you need to construct new obstacles to push yourself beyond your current capabilities? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Who Would Want to be Normal?

How rejecting conformity can transform your work from ordinary to extraordinary

Mini Cooper’s “Not Normal” campaign celebrates the power of breaking free from convention

Last week, during a meeting about our 2013 initiatives, I found myself expressing frustration with the tendency to do things “the way they’ve always been done.” This led me to share a Mini Cooper advertisement I’d recently discovered—a video that has since become something of an inspiration for our team. In fact, it’s sparked a new catchphrase around the office, with colleagues dismissing conventional ideas by saying, “eh…that is so normal.”

The ad is part of Mini Cooper’s “Not Normal” campaign, which launched in 2013 to differentiate the brand in an increasingly competitive market. When rivals like Chevrolet began releasing similar compact vehicles, Mini needed to reinforce what made them special—their distinctive, unconventional character that appeals to those who prefer to stand out rather than blend in.

What resonates most about this campaign is its central message that challenges us all: Why settle for normal when you could be amazing?

The Power of Being Different

The Mini Cooper campaign brilliantly taps into a fundamental human truth: most of us secretly want to stand out, even as social pressure pushes us to conform. The advertisement celebrates those who choose to be different—not just for the sake of being different, but because authentic self-expression leads to innovation, creativity, and genuine connection.

In business, this principle applies just as powerfully. Companies that simply follow industry norms rarely disrupt markets or create memorable customer experiences. The most beloved brands—from Apple to Airbnb—earned their positions by challenging conventional wisdom and exploring uncharted territory.

When Mini launched this campaign, they weren’t just selling cars—they were selling permission to embrace individuality. The message works because it speaks to something deeper than product features; it addresses our desire to live authentically rather than according to others’ expectations.

The Normalcy Trap

My favorite line from the video perfectly captures why breaking free from convention matters: “Normal can never be amazing.” Think about that for a moment. If we aim for normal—for the expected, the safe, the already-done—we automatically cap our potential at mediocrity.

In our professional lives, the normalcy trap is particularly dangerous. It manifests in many ways:

  • Choosing the “proven” approach even when it doesn’t quite fit the challenge
  • Presenting ideas that won’t be rejected rather than ones that might transform
  • Following industry best practices without questioning their relevance
  • Benchmarking against competitors rather than reimagining possibilities

“Who would ever want to be normal?” the ad asks. When framed this way, conformity seems not just limiting but almost absurd. After all, no one is inspired by products, services, or experiences that are merely adequate.

Perfect Brand Alignment

What makes this Mini Cooper campaign particularly effective is how perfectly it aligns with the product itself. The Mini has always been a car that stands out—compact in a world of SUVs, playful in a sea of seriousness, distinctively designed amid cookie-cutter sedans.

The “Not Normal” message works because it’s authentic to the brand’s history and values. Mini isn’t pretending to be something it’s not; it’s celebrating what it truly is. This authenticity creates a powerful connection with consumers who share similar values and self-perception.

The campaign represents exceptional marketing because:

  • It positions a potential weakness (being different from mainstream cars) as a strength
  • It creates emotional resonance beyond product features
  • It invites consumers to join a mindset, not just buy a product
  • It’s memorable and distinctive in a crowded advertising landscape

Breaking Normal in the Workplace

Since sharing this video with my colleagues, I’ve noticed a subtle but significant shift in our team discussions. Referencing the “not normal” concept has become a playful but powerful way to challenge conventional thinking and push for more innovative solutions.

When someone proposes the standard approach to a problem, another team member might ask, “Is that the normal solution or the amazing one?” It creates a space where thinking differently isn’t just permitted but actively encouraged.

The most valuable aspect of this shared reference point is that it removes the personal element from critique. Instead of saying “I don’t think your idea is innovative enough,” we can simply ask whether it falls into the “normal” category. This creates psychological safety while still pushing for excellence.

Your Personal Brand of “Not Normal”

The Mini Cooper advertisement poses a question worth reflecting on: What’s your version of “not normal”? Where in your work could breaking from convention create something truly exceptional?

Every time I see a Mini Cooper now, I’m reminded of this message. It’s become a visual trigger that prompts me to reconsider my approach to challenges and look for unconventional solutions. (Credit to BMW’s marketing team for creating such an effective association!)

This awareness extends beyond specific projects to how I hope others perceive my contributions. When colleagues see me in the hallway or think about our interactions, I want them to associate me with work that isn’t just adequate but genuinely amazing—work that could never be described as “normal.”

If you’re passionate about your work, chances are it won’t be normal—it will be amazing. Passion naturally drives us beyond convention toward something more meaningful, more distinctive, and ultimately more valuable.

Beyond Normal: Your Turn

The next time you find yourself following a conventional path simply because it’s the expected route, pause and consider the Mini Cooper question: “Who would ever want to be normal?” Challenge yourself to identify at least one aspect of your current project where breaking from normal could lead to something extraordinary.

Remember that amazing rarely happens by accident. It emerges when we consciously reject the gravitational pull of “how things have always been done” and venture into unexplored territory. It happens when we give ourselves permission to be distinctively ourselves rather than pale imitations of what we think others expect.

Here’s to you doing amazing work…

Join the Conversation

Where have you seen “not normal” approaches lead to extraordinary results? Share your examples of breaking from convention in the comments below!