Are you battling artificial constraints? Explore how arbitrary rules in social media, the workplace, and international systems punish us for systemic failures. Join Lita’s journey to challenge control and reclaim your sovereignty.

The Unwritten Rule: How “Artificial Constraints” Punish Us for Their Failures

We accept that life has rules. Many are for health, safety, and the smooth running of society. But as we move through life and business, we start to recognise a different kind of rule—one that isn’t about protection, but about projection. These are the rules born from an organisation’s or platform’s own lack, ignorance, or incompetence. I call these Artificial Constraints.

These are the limitations placed upon us, not for our benefit, but to cover for someone else’s failure to prepare, develop, or adapt.

The Digital Prison: Punished for Living Your Life

Consider the social media creator who is temporarily shadowbanned or has their account access threatened simply for travelling. Are we truly to believe that in an era of global connection, a digital career can be derailed for not logging on from the “correct” postcode?

This isn’t a security measure; it’s a systemic flaw. The platform’s inability to gracefully handle legitimate human activity—like holidays or business trips—becomes a rule that punishes the user. The creator, who has built a career on this volatile ground, is treated with suspicion for the platform’s own lack of sophistication.

This problem is exacerbated by a complex web of international trade laws and data regulations. While I am fully aware countries have legitimate laws, their current application often creates a digital landscape where borders are enforced online as rigidly as on land. This stands in stark contrast to the original purpose of the World Wide Web: to connect everyone, regardless of location. Instead of building a coherent legal structure to facilitate global connection, we have a confusing patchwork that punishes the user for the system’s lack of clarity. This is a critical issue for the next generation of platforms to address—to advocate for frameworks that enable, rather than restrict, genuine global connection.

The constraint is artificial, and the individual pays the price.

The Corporate Straitjacket: Control Over Common Sense

This pattern echoes in the traditional workplace. Think of the company that enforces strict average handling times for customer calls, yet does nothing to manage customer expectations beforehand. Contrast this with the transparent efficiency of McDonald’s, where from day one, employees are trained for speed and customers are conditioned to expect it. The rule works because the entire system is designed to support it.

Too often, however, rules are created as a knee-jerk reaction to poor preparation. The company is ill-equipped, so it imposes a constraint on its employees to mask that failure.

The most glaring modern example is the rigid resistance to evolution in our work structures. The debate about a four-day week has been ongoing since my twenties in the NHS. We have known for decades that in most office roles, Friday is quiet and Monday is busy. So why are employers so afraid to admit that the rigid five-day, in-office week is an outdated relic?

This isn’t about reducing output; it’s about optimising energy and respecting human rhythm. The salary should not be reduced; in fact, maintaining it is a fair compensation for companies failing to keep up with the rising cost of living. When employers demand physical presence while employees struggle to afford food and heating, we must ask: Who are these rules truly serving?

I remember when flexible working was a hard-won right, initially reserved for mothers before being extended to all. Yet, even now, obtaining that flexibility often feels like a battle.

A Personal Testament to Change

My own journey has taught me the profound value of breaking these constraints, all within the same role. I started a job in April 2019 that, at the outset, felt different and promising. I found a manager who encouraged genuine connection without forced social rituals like pooled birthday gifts. For a time, it was a glimpse of a more modern, trust-based workplace.

The irony is stark. This very same company was simultaneously considering innovative policies like a four-day week and broader remote work. Yet, by that September, I was told the remote work “pilot hadn’t worked,” and the old rules reasserted themselves.

Then March 2020 happened, forcing the very same organisation to prove that remote work was not only possible but operable on a massive scale. The constraint wasn’t logistical; it was cultural. By 2021, as the call to return to the hybrid office began, I made my choice. I had already moved 300 miles away in September 2020, acting on the bold belief that remote work was my future, with or without that job.

Today, as I write on the 28th of September 2025, I realise this is the fifth anniversary of living in that home. The same job that showed me a glimpse of a better way also showed me the rigidity of the old. Through all the twists and turns, I am still here, building my self-employed business. I have not yet achieved full financial sovereignty, but I am here, living proof that the path away from artificial constraints is difficult, messy, but unequivocally worth it.

The Sovereign Response

It’s a cruel paradox when the rules and regulations designed to structure our lives actively work against our sovereignty and well-being. They reveal a system that values compliance over intelligence and control over trust.

Recognising a rule as an Artificial Constraint is the first step toward dismantling its power. It allows us to ask the liberating question: “Is this rule for a genuine purpose, or is it simply a patch for someone else’s incompetence?”

This is why building your own foundation—through a personal brand, a side business, or a sovereign community—is no longer just an ambition. It is a act of defiance. It is the decision to stop being a subject to arbitrary rules and start being the author of your own professional life.

By choosing to build what we truly own, we create a system where the rules are based on transparency, mutual benefit, and genuine growth—not on fear and control.

What Artificial Constraints have you encountered in your career or online? Share them. In naming them, we rob them of their power.