By Joe Byerly
In 1957, Theodor Geisel’s publisher challenged him to create a children’s book with characters, a plot, and all the trappings of a great story using only a first-grade vocabulary list of less than 250 words. He produced The Cat in the Hat. Three years later, his editor issued a new challenge: do it with 50 words. Dr. Seuss answered with Green Eggs and Ham.
How many of us would have looked at that list and said, “absolutely not”? How many of us would have fixated on the limits and grumbled about them to anyone who would listen?
It’s easy to see only the constraints—the list, the budgets, the timelines—and miss the opportunities they create, miss the story we could create.
It’s like looking at a coloring page and seeing only the bold black outline, instead of the space between the lines where we get to choose what color to make the mermaid’s tail.
I used to live in a constant state of frustration because my military career was so busy and I only had limited time to write each day. But, in retrospect, that limited time became a catalyst for my own creativity. It forced me to focus, to make the most of every minute—and in return, it gave me a body of work, outside of work.
Now that I’ve been retired from the military for a year, and have a schedule “without walls” I’ve come to realize that it’s much harder to be productive when it’s up to me to put my ass in the chair, when I don’t have constraints forcing me to sit down and write. In some ways, I kind of miss them.
While constraints do frustrate us, we must also acknowledge their benefits.
Constraints help us overcome the tendency to get paralyzed by possibilities and instead focus on what’s in front of us. Without them, we’re overwhelmed—like sitting in a Waffle House staring at a menu of 100+ items, unable to decide between the smothered-and-covered hashbrowns or the pecan waffle. With them, we’re guided—like a fine dining restaurant that hands you a single page with fewer than ten carefully chosen options.
As Sonke Ahrens reminds us, “Without restriction, we would never be forced to make the decision on what is worth pursuing and what is not.”
A budget makes us take a harder look at where we’re spending our money. A tight timeline forces us to prioritize what really matters. And a limited list of words pushes us to create a whimsical story about Sam, some ham, and a couple of slightly suspicious eggs.
Joe Byerly is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel with 20 years of service, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and command of a cavalry squadron in Europe. He earned numerous prestigious awards, including multiple Legion of Merits, Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award. In 2013, Joe founded From the Green Notebook.
A passionate advocate for self-knowledge through reading and reflection, he authored The Leader’s 90-Day Notebook and co-authored My Green Notebook: “Know Thyself” Before Changing Jobs, a resource for leaders seeking greater self-awareness. If this post resonated with you or sparked any questions, feel free to reach out to him at Joe@fromthegreennotebook.com.
