The Boundary Conditions for Your Life
On a November evening in 1965, the lights went out on more than 30 million people.
New York state was dark, along with parts of seven other states across the north-east. The blackout was caused by a tripped transmission line in Ontario.
People were stuck in dark apartments and elevators, stalled subway cars and terrible traffic jams. The blackout lasted about 13 hours – from 5:27 PM on a Tuesday evening, well into Wednesday morning.
Without power for the whole night, it was impossible for newspapers to get their morning copies out – there was no way to print them.
The New York Times was the single exception. Shortly after the power failure, they found a printing plant in Newark, New Jersey. The lights were still on across the river, and it was probably the only time (before or since) that Newark was preferable to New York.
The printing plant was home to The Newark Evening News, and by some miracle, The New York Times was able to secure one hour and forty minutes of press time.
According to history (or possibly legend) as the printing was about to start, the executive editor ordered a halt. He wasn’t happy with the way in which one word in the publication was hyphenated.
The editor proceeded to argue the issue with several assistants – FOR FORTY-EIGHT MINUTES!
The team finally settled the issue and moved on with the printing. But instead of the one million copies they wanted, they only had time to print half.
Nobody was angry. The editor made the right call.
The New York Times is known as the gold standard for written English in the United States. The integrity and accuracy of the language within the publication was more important than the number of copies they had on the newsstand the next day.
Boundary conditions
This example was presented in Peter Drucker’s book, The Effective Executive. The book talks at length about decision making, and the following was one of my major takeaways:
When you are clear on your boundary conditions, making decisions becomes much easier.
Boundary conditions are a concept used in complex math and science equations, but the idea is equally applicable for decision making. Basically, a boundary condition is a requirement that must be satisfied in all potential solutions to a problem. If the boundary condition isn’t satisfied, you haven’t reached a viable solution.
In the New York Times example, their boundary condition was “impeccable English, at all times, no exceptions.” Since the editor knew this was a condition that needed to be satisfied, it was an easy decision to delay the printing until they resolved the hyphen issue.
When applied to your own decision making, you can think of boundary conditions as your principles.
Principle based decisions
At the most basic level, your decisions are principle based. For example, “don’t kill people” is a principle shared by most upstanding members of society. It is a boundary condition for all your decisions.
Imagine while on your morning commute you see somebody step off the sidewalk without looking and walk in front of your car. You are faced with a decision: slam on your brakes to avoid running him over, or proceed uninterrupted (except for a cracked grill and a quick “thump thump”).
Being an upstanding member of society, you choose the first option. The second option doesn’t satisfy our shared boundary condition of “don’t kill people.”
That’s a clear-cut example.
But what about this.
A lack of willpower
Don’t harm children.
That’s another principle most of us share. This seems like a clear-cut example too – until it’s not.
Marvin was driving home after a long day at work with his son in the back seat. He stopped at a red light and reached down for a cigarette. He lit it, cracked his window, and pulled away as the light turned green.
Smoking a cigarette while your child is in the car doesn’t satisfy the boundary condition of “don’t harm children.” But Marvin lacked willpower, so he strayed from principle-based decision making.
Finding your why
Carlos spends every day from 7am to 4pm stocking shelves at the local grocery store. Then he delivers pizzas from 6 til 10pm.
When Carlos was applying for pizza jobs,everyone wanted to hire him, until he told the managers he couldn’t start work before 6pm.
“Dinner rush starts at five,” they would say. “Sorry, it’s not going to work out.”
Carlos could’ve easily taken the job – God knows he needed the money - but he had boundary conditions. He was basing his decision on a principle.
Carlos grew up without a father. His dad was out of the picture before he was old enough to walk. Without a positive father figure in his life, Carlos dropped out of high school, never went to college, and bounced around from job to job. It took him a decade to develop a strong work ethic, and his earning potential suffered.
Carlos wanted better for his kids. He vowed to be a strong positive presence in their lives, get them through high school and college, and into careers where they made a good living. This was his “why,” and it was a strong one.
Carlos had to spend a lot of time working to provide for his family, but he had one principle on which he never compromised: he was always home to have dinner with his kids.
Because Carlos had a strong “why,” he didn’t compromise on his boundary condition of always being home for dinner. He kept searching until he found a job that satisfied his principles.
How can you make principle-based decisions?
It’s easy to make principle-based decisions when it’s a principle everyone shares – like “don’t kill people.” The practice becomes harder when the principle isn’t clear cut.
So how can you ensure that you’re making principle-based decisions?
First, you need to spend some time thinking on your principles. What are the boundary conditions of your life? This is a question most people never ask themselves, but once you define them, making decisions will become easier.
Then you need a strong why.Your why is the thing you believe in deeply, as Simon Sinek explains in his TED talk. It’s what drives you. It’s the reason you do what you do. Your why is the reason for your principles.When your why is strong, it’s hard to stray from those principles.
Finally, you need to strengthen your willpower. Many of the reasons you’ll deviate from your principles (convenience, selfishness, greed, sex, etc.) stem from a lack of willpower. Luckily, willpower can be trained just like a muscle. According to Todd Heatherton, a willpower researcher at Dartmouth,
“When you learn to force yourself to go to the gym or start your homework or eat a salad instead of a hamburger, part of what’s happening is that you’re changing how you think. People get better at regulating their impulses. They learn how to distract themselves from temptations. And once you’ve gotten into that willpower groove, your brain is practiced at helping you focus on a goal.”
Focus on a goal. A goal of making decisions based on principles, the boundary conditions of your life.
The New York Times story got me thinking, what are my boundary conditions? Where do I draw the line, and what is my why to make sure that I do?
I haven’t thought of an answer yet. It’s not an overnight process. But asking the question is a good place to start.
