Limit Your Options to Maximize Your Freedom ⚡️
Exploring bright line rules and the psychological scaffolding of greatness.
📍 Coordinates: The Nest 🪺, Argentina.
🎧 Music Pairing: Triptap – Symbolico.
📖 Reading Time: ~6 minutes.
"A bright-line rule refers to a clearly defined rule or standard. It is a rule with clear interpretation and very little wiggle room. It establishes a bright line for what the rule is saying and what it is not saying." — James Clear
The thing I've struggled with the most in my life is my own bullshit…
"Oh, I'll do this tomorrow."
"Ah, one more couldn't hurt."
"Just this once."
“Another project? Absolutely!”
It leads to a slow and steady erosion of my values, my principles, and my commitment to myself and our future.
I've seen this in countless others as well.
The counteracting force is psychological scaffolding. Mental steel beams that support my life and my actions.
I explored this concept in a video I put out last year on the 'ango' – a Zen term that means 'peaceful dwelling'.
Counterintuitively, the peaceful dwelling of the ango refers to the rigid and strict schedule that monks follow on retreat. Every moment is accounted for, unyielding, unchanging, for months on end. How is that peaceful?
With this rigid structure in place, you drastically reduce the cognitive load of thinking about when to eat, when to sleep, what to do next, and where to go. When you deeply examine your moment-to-moment experience, you'll notice that the majority of your time and energy is spent entertaining nonsense like this.
If you want to increase your cognitive freedom, reduce your emotional load, clarify your identity, and create a life more deeply in line with your values – brightline rules help with this.
If you want to maximize your freedom, you need to limit your choices.
Saying no is asymmetrically more powerful than saying yes.
A brightline rule takes a nebulous goal "I want to be more active" and turns it into a clarified aim, "I go on a walk every morning."
Where I have tripped up on this in the past is feeling like these rules "limit my freedom."
The modern translation of the ango and brightline rules is found in Jocko Willinck: discipline equals freedom.
Setting non-negotiable life operating principles provide the true freedom to focus time energy and attention on things that are of deep importance to me.
Who cares about the freedom to decide what to eat? I'm not going to be on my deathbed congratulating myself for consuming a great variety of trash for years of my life.
Here are some brightline rules I currently have, and I'd love to hear in the comments any of yours:
"There is no hot water knob in the shower."
My rule for cold showers. It's no longer a choice. No longer a stupid negotiation of "Oh okay I'll start hot and then maybe a few minutes later I'll do cold. We’ll see!" The rule has simply become: I can only turn the cold water knob. Easy.
"Bitcoin-Only."
When focusing on my investments, savings, and engagement in the crypto space, my brightline rule has become "bitcoin only." It's simple. I have a cheeky reminder of this sitting on my keyboard each and every moment.
"Wine-Only."
Alcohol is poison, but I'll be damned if red wine isn't an absolute vibe. So I've established a rule with myself, that if I'm going to drink alcohol, it's going to be wine.
"The first thing in my body is water."
A brightline to start the day. You always wake up dehydrated. You need water. Most humans don't drink enough water. Therefore, I have a gate I need to walk through each morning. Before food, before coffee, before anything – water.
“Own no TV, no Netflix, no Games, & no reading the news.”
This brightline came as a byproduct of being semi-nomadic & highly minimalistic, but it’s been retained for the lifestyle it affords me. I said own no TV, not never watch. If I’m with friends and we want to watch something or play Smash Bros, great, I will. But in my house, in my day-to-day life, there is no TV, no Netflix subscription, no video game console, and no news outlets. Ever.
"One thing in, one thing out."
This is a minimalist brightline rule, created years ago. It’s simple: if I want to buy something physical, something of equivalent significance must be given away. New shirt? Donate an old one. New tech? The old model better be on its way out the door.
"Never late, never early."
“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” — Gandalf the Grey.
This is for honouring commitments. If we agree on a time, I will be there. Personally, I like to have time to prepare before calls/meetings/events, so I honour that in others by not arriving early. It cultivates integrity. Never late, never early.
"Something is written, and it is written first."
My entire living is made primarily (though not exclusively) through writing. I write constantly. Blogs, content, programs, scripts, newsletters, ghost articles, guidance. Every day, something is written. This is one I'm actively working on – to make writing the first task I do each day. It is still a work in progress.
"80% of my nutrition is animal-based."
This one drastically simplifies food. 80% of my nutrition on any given day, and over the course of the week, must hit >= 80% animal-based: organs, meat, honey, dairy, and fruit. The extra 20%? Tea, coffee, wine, dark chocolate.
"Drop any brightline that is not value-adding."
This is a meta-brightline. These rules exist in my life to make my life increasingly better over time. If something no longer serves me, I have a failsafe brightline to drop them.
Make no mistake, I don't always hit these. No one is perfect, and you shouldn't demand this of yourself. There are other areas of life I’ve struggled with establishing bright lines: social media use, alcohol & substances, struggles with overworking, and financial savings. There are many I hope to tackle but haven’t yet.
However, what I like about bright lines is that they normalize to the rule over time.
If you have the brightline in place, you'll know clearly when you deviate from it, when you stray from your values, and over time, they will bring you into alignment with the rule.
For example: after several months of animal-based diet, whenever someone comes to our school with doughnuts and I eat one, I get the viscerally upsetting reminder of how bad they are. My stomach, digestion, and energy levels go whack. Another vote for animal-based. Eventually, I stop fooling myself that it will be a good choice. It normalizes to the brightline.
What do you think about bright lines? I'd love to hear any of your own or your experience with bright lines. Feel free to sound off in the comments. :)
With love, and a little bit of sacred structure, EB. 💛
This is awesome man! I am constantly quoting the “discipline equals freedom” line. It’s interesting that you mentioned the monks in retreat and how all of the parts of their day are accounted for. I was in the military in another lifetime and felt very peaceful, particularly in boot camp because of this same principle. No decisions about what to wear. No decisions about what, where or when to eat, no choice but to workout when you are told to. And no choice but to go to bed when it’s lights out.
Love this