“Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair.”

One of the easiest things to lose in business is the discipline to be constrained.  There are no shortage of ideas, sometimes really big and great ideas, but being disciplined to show constraint is a real skill and one that is correlated to success.  Having a ruthless discipline to stay focused without drifting is not an ordinary trait that we find across companies and leaders.  Most cannot help themselves from building on, adding in, expanding, or brainstorming for the next big idea, before the current mission is accomplished.  In yesterday’s post about the Dunbar Model, we read that it might be that our physiological and neurological constraints of being able to hold a maximum of 150 meaningful relationships is a good thing to know and understand. Similarly, if we were to understand that we are not built with constraint as a normal human trait we could learn to discipline ourselves to this need.  In a recent Businessweek article, the successful venture capitalist Jerry Murdock said this about constraints (as he was referencing Dunbar’s theory); “And it’s the constraints that make great architecture. It’s the constraints that make great companies”.  Consider if your organization understands and has in its’ DNA the discipline of constraint.

God’s Word is chocked full of the need for us to practice constraint in our lives.  Many will read these constraints as legalism and as such, rebel against them and say that they are taking away from our abundantly-to-be-lived lives.  But, as we know, with constraint comes learning.  With constraint comes an increase in our understanding and context of an issue, problem or opportunity.  With constraint comes time, longer-thoughts, and conversation.  It’s worthwhile to take stock of our lives and know where we are practicing constraint and where we are not.  If we are seeking to hear, understand and know God, it is more than likely that we will find Him in the places where we are disciplined and showing constraint than in the places where we are not.

Reference: Proverbs 1:3 (New Living Translation)