Perception vs. Reality: Unveiling My Biggest Constraint

Hi friend - hope you’re doing well.

Three weeks ago, I began a month-long leadership workshop, called the altMBA.

Founded by author & entrepreneur, Seth Godin, the program reimagines leadership education, with a prompt-based & social-sciences approach to business.

It’s been a profound experience so far & I’m pumped to share more in the weeks to come.

In the meantime though - let’s take a spin through my biggest takeaway from the program last week and the podcasts I’ve enjoyed most in 2024.

My Biggest Constraint

Last week, the altMBA covered the Theory of Constraints - a management framework that aims to identify & solve for the most critical bottleneck in a system.

For example, funding might be the constraint of a start-up, or a manufacturing plant might be limited by the capacity of a critical machine.

In either case, addressing the constraint can lead to significant improvements in overall system performance.

As I was reflecting on my life & decision-making process, however, I realized this:

Often, my perception is my biggest constraint.

It’s almost funny, how our minds can delude us into creating barriers that don’t actually exist.

For instance, I whole-heartedly believed that I didn’t have enough time or energy to conduct interviews for the newsletter - an idea I’ve been considering for over a year.

Turns out, my resistance was born out of a fear of being hurt again, as I experienced loss & grief after stepping away from the DMP podcast.

Excuses can be smoke-and-mirrors for underlying fears.

(The Work from Byron Katie is a helpful framework for challenging & navigating difficult thoughts. It includes four questions:

1. Is it true?

2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?

3. How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?

4. Who would you be without that thought?

I could list countless ways in which my capacities were hindered by my perspective… not believing something is possible, creating mental obstacles, etc.

Obviously, this isn’t always the case.

There are tons of legitimate constraints in every day life, such as time, money, space, health, and opportunity.

I am by no means suggesting that your biggest constraint is your perception, just that mine is at this point in life.

I was thrilled about this uncovering, because know that I have awareness, change can begin.

4 Podcasts I’m Enjoying in 2024

Dr. Michael Gervais is an expert in human performance psychology, and has worked with an impressive range of clients: Olympic medalists, major sports’ MVPs, the Seattle Seahawks, and world record holders.

This conversation centers on Gervais’s new book, The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying About What People Think of You and explores concepts such as applying imagination to individual and organizational purpose.

Kristen Holmes is the Vice President of Performance Science at Whoop, a health & fitness monitoring company.

Even as a Whoop owner, I learned so much in this interview, especially around Circadian Rhythm, Heart Rate Variability, the psychology of peak performance.

Noah Kagan is the founder & head of AppSumo.com, an online software marketplace.

He also runs a YouTube channel about business & entrepreneurship, which becomes evident in this discussion. It’s engaging and super-tangible, leaving listeners with a step-by-step guide for effective entrepreneurship.

Here’s three of my favorite sections (with time stamps):

• [1:43:19] Finding a sustainable purpose.

• [2:05:09] Counterintuitively, constraints catalyze creativity.

• [3:45:21] Lessons learned from spending more than a million dollars on coaching.

Thank you for Reading

Wishing you a great week ahead.

With gratitude,

Aidan