Hello professionals of influence!
Today’s special issue is all about systems (plus a $297 gift 🎁)
An early copy of How to Be Good at Life from my mentor and friend Ben Meer landed on my doorstep…
…and I want to share with you one of my favorite finds:
Chosen Constraints
Think about the last goal you failed to reach.
Maybe it was the workout. Maybe it was the art project you swore you'd finish. Maybe it was "I'll finally start that side project in January."
Now be honest. Did you drop it because you didn't want it?
Probably not. You wanted it. You just had to choose it again. And again. And again. And one of those times, you didn't.
This is the hidden problem with willpower. Every moment is a new vote. And your brain's job is to protect you from discomfort right now, not to help you build something that pays off in a year.
So instead of voting every single time you’re faced with the work, vote now, decide on a system that removes willpower from the equation. This is where chosen constraints come in.
Here's how each of Ben's four chosen constraints works, the science behind it, and how a professional of influence puts it to work.
1. Environment constraints: change your surroundings.
Your environment is influencing your behavior whether you realize it or not.
Think about the last time you grabbed your phone without meaning to. You didn't decide to check it. It was just there, a few inches from your hand. Same you. Same willpower. The only thing that mattered was the distance.
This is friction. Small barriers change big behaviors. Add friction to what you want to do less. Remove it from what you want to do more.
Application:
Delete social apps from your phone. Log in from a browser if you really need them.
Put junk food somewhere inconvenient. Top shelf, back of the pantry.
Leave your running shoes by the door, or your notebook open on the desk.
Design your space so the easiest choice is the one you want to make.
2. Time constraints: create productive pressure.
In 1955, a British historian named Cyril Northcote Parkinson wrote a satirical essay in The Economist. Its first line became famous: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."
We call it Parkinson's Law. Give a task a week and it takes a week. Give it a day and somehow it gets done in a day.
A deadline gives your brain a finish line. And without one, "later" stays later forever.
(this is me by the way. Give me an open-ended afternoon and I'll spend three hours on a headline.)
Application:
Set a real deadline, with a date and a time.
Schedule a 45-minute meeting instead of an hour.
Give yourself 30 minutes to finish the first draft. Ugly is allowed.
3. Social constraints: enlist accountability.
Here's a strange truth about people. We break promises to ourselves all the time. We almost never break them to someone else.
Psychologists call this the drive for consistency. Robert Cialdini found that once we commit to something, especially out loud and in front of others, we feel pressure to act in line with it. Breaking the promise now has a social cost. Your reputation is on the line.
That's a huge lever. And it's sitting right there, free.
Application:
Tell a friend you'll meet them at the gym at 7am.
Promise your team you'll deliver by Friday.
Sell something before you've finished building it. (Nothing makes you finish a workshop like people who already bought a seat.)
4. Money constraints: raise the stakes.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that losses hit us about twice as hard as equal gains. Losing $100 stings more than finding $100 feels good.
Most of the time, loss aversion makes us cautious. But you can flip it. Put something on the line, and quitting stops being "missing a goal." Now it costs you something real.
Researchers have built whole tools around this idea. Yale economists Dean Karlan and Ian Ayres co-founded stickK, a site where people put money on the line for their goals. Miss the goal, and the money goes to a charity, or even a cause you can't stand.
Application:
Book the nonrefundable retreat.
Pay for the race before you start training.
Create a real penalty for backing out, and tell someone who'll hold you to it.
Use chosen constraints to help you achieve your goals. We are wired to be influenced by them.
Which one will you try first?
🎁 A $297 gift (please don't leave it on the table)
Ben's book, How to Be Good at Life, is all about simple systems that make work and life easier. And if you pre-order it now, you also get his Year of Systems course for free.
That course sells for $297.
So here's how I see it. I just handed you $297.
The catch? There will only be 30,000 seats available. As of now, 24,602 have already been claimed in a span of 2 weeks.
After that, the course goes back to full price. You'd be paying $297 for something that was free yesterday.
For the price of a hardcover, you get the book and a $297 course. Don't let it slip through your fingers!
I’ll see you this Sunday! 😉
Change behavior, change lives 🤘🏽
Howie Chan
Creator of Influence Anyone
P.S. This Sunday I’m announcing something that’s been really hard for me…stay tuned.