One of my favorite copywriters / thinkers ever, Sally Hogshead, wrote an amazing blog post today – “The Flea and the Jar”. Check it out. This won’t be news to most of my dog training friends, but she talks about how if you put so many limits and constraints on someone over and over again – he or she begins to give up. She explains:

“If you put a flea in a jar and tightly screw on the lid, the flea will try to jump as high as it can.

From that point on, even if you take off the lid, the flea will never, ever jump any higher than the perceived lid.”

This applies to dogs and people too. So before you put the lid on someone’s thoughts or ideas or creativity or passion or fun – stop. Because if you let them be free and be the best version of themselves, they might just surpass all of your expectations.

You might end up with a flea circus instead of a flea in a jar.