Episode 60: How you hold yourself back...Are you the bottleneck?
Let’s discuss why you could be the bottleneck in your life...
Welcome to Episode 60 of The SPS Podcast.
“In life, all good things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by.”
- Lucy Ricardo
Is this one of TV’s most iconic scenes?
In I Love Lucy... Lucy is working the line in a chocolate factory...
And the product is coming down faster than she can wrap them.
Life as a business owner feels like this often.
Projects…ideas…notifications…client work…drama…all flowing at you constantly.
You do what you can…but feel overwhelmed…lost…stressed out.
In manufacturing and project management…this type of faulty product line would be described as a constraint.
And there’s a whole theory to this as well.
Let me explain…
TOC or Theory Of Constraint...involves recognizing and understanding the limitations or restrictions that impact a system…process…or individual.
Then...you find ways to manage or overcome those constraints to achieve desired results.
How constraint theory is implemented varies depending on the field in which it is used.
But the overall concept is the same
Find the problem - fix the problem - test the fix - adapt with feedback.
*This is my simplified translation.
Now…this is the Self-Performance Strategies Pod
So...let’s talk about TOC through the lens of helping the individual…specifically a business owner.
Dr. Alan Barnard…one of the world’s experts in TOC…states that individuals fail to learn and improve in four ways.
1. Doing the wrong things
2. Not doing the right things
3. Doing the right things but in the wrong way
4. Repeating errors 1…2…3…times
Getting these wrong creates a constraint or bottleneck in your life.
If we return to the I Love Lucy factory line example…all four mistakes are happening simultaneously.
But let’s look at each individually…using my Twitter or X journey as an example.
1. Doing the wrong things:
If I look back at my first tweets in 2017…I was reposting my YouTube videos and using a list of hashtags to try and promote them.
Dumping and running…I was doing the wrong things.
2. Not doing the right things:
Then in 2020...I started posting Stoic and other philosophical quotes.
Sure…some got likes…even one or two popped…but I was not interacting or using the platform right.
But I was no longer dumping and running.
3. Doing the right things but in the wrong way:
While growing my account…I did this often.
Yes…I was posting and commenting under other larger accounts.
Yes…I grew from 75 followers to 70k in three years.
But at times...the platform needs you to change. If you’re not doing things the right way...your growth and reach suffer.
4. Repeating errors 1…2…3…times:
Following on from the last point…rather than adapting to changes.
I would post the same style of content over and over again and expect different results.
Dumb sh*t…I would repeat my mistakes before learning the lesson.
Now…I could have given you examples of how I created these four bottlenecks while working in sales…leadership…and scaling my coaching business.
But…when you step back and start looking for bottlenecks in your life and business…they will fall into one or more of these ways.
As we all know…all progress starts with the truth.
The question I want to leave you with is…
Where are you causing these bottlenecks in your life of business?
If you're honest you'll find some bottlenecks.
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Big love,
ST
Fan of removing bottlenecks
