Constraints are Cool
The Illusion of “More”
My whole life, all I ever wanted was more:
More time. More money. More energy. I thought more meant freedom.
If I just had more of everything, I could live bigger. Choose less. Have it all. No trade-offs. No limits. No ceiling. I was trying to out-hustle time itself, as if it were infinite, or as if I could collapse it through sheer ambition.
The Collision
Just about the time I felt like I was getting close… I became a mom. And then overnight, there was less.
Less time that was fully mine. Less free money. Less energy at the end of the day.
And if I’m honest? I resisted. Hard.
I treated motherhood like an obstacle in the way of my ambitions. Like something to optimize around. Like a detour instead of the destination. I was living in resistance instead of reverence. Then I saw something that was literally game-changing for me. And it changed the game I was playing:
The more a mother enjoys her motherhood, the more a child enjoys their childhood.
It was a reckoning.
The purpose of this season wasn’t to prove I could still out-perform my old life. The purpose was them. Their magic. Their core memories. Their experience of having a mom who was present, not perpetually managing something else in her head.
The Reframe
Here’s what I need you to hear: That realization didn’t eliminate my ambition. It simply reframed it...
I could still build. Still dream. Still work toward freedom, creative expression, and impact.
But I had to accept the container.
And here’s what I realized: Constraints are cool. (Especially when they’re paired with a clear goal.)
Constraint + target = electric.
I need to achieve X. I have Y to do it.
When I stopped fighting the limits of my season, I became more powerful, and stronger inside them.
The Power Inside the Box
With 20 minutes to get dinner on the table, I don’t spiral, I choose. With a $200 gift budget, I get thoughtful. With $5,000 to launch something, I make every dollar earn its place. With one focused hour to work, I ruthlessly prioritize the one thing that matters most.
Constraints eliminate fluff. They sharpen focus. They call forward creativity. They force identity.
You don’t get to do everything. You get to choose. And choosing is where power lives.
A More Discerning Definition of Freedom
Now listen, I don’t love every constraint. Some days I wish I had more margin, more sleep, more space… But the more I push against the boundary, the more exhausted I become.
The shift isn’t in my circumstances, it is in my posture:
Discernment isn’t limiting. It’s liberating.
Freedom isn’t unlimited capacity. It’s intentional allocation.
Maturity isn’t doing it all. It’s having the right filters for what makes it on the list in the first place.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours to make: You can resist the limits of your season, or you can embrace them.
My wish for you
Don’t wait for unlimited resources to begin. See constraints as creativity training. Because the moment you stop fighting the limits of your season, you’ll became powerful inside them.
