Imagine two playgrounds filled with kids. One playground has a fence around it. The other doesn’t.
Mentally predicting, the children at the playground without the fence would use all the space available to play.
In reality, the children in that context are closer to one another, staying close to the playground, as if there’s an even smaller invisible fence in place. All the while the children in the playground with the fence are playing in all the area up to the fence.
This is the paradox of structure and why I love borders so much.
Borders, or in the paradox of structure, fences, function with two purposes.
The first purpose is that it sets the parameter for you to go beyond. It gives you a goal to broaden your experience and bias and to explore past what feels comfortable. The second purpose is that it signifies that you already know the space leading up to the fence is “safe.”
As noticed in the paradox of structure, the kids had more fear of the outside area of the playground when there was no fence than when there was.
The fence never signifies that going past it is bad or dangerous. It is simply a reminder that this is how far you have gone before.
You have every ability to pick the fence up and move it further back.
Stay Positive & In Fact, Go Do That
Garth E. Beyer
Photo credit
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