What's slowing your progress down? And one question to figure it out.

You're stuck. You've been working hard, putting in the hours, reading the books, and yet... there's no meaningful progress toward your goals. What's going on? 

The answer lies in a powerful concept from systems thinking that could completely transform how you approach any challenge.  

Every system, whether it's your business, health journey, or relationship, has one critical bottleneck that's holding everything else back. This is your "number one constraint," and until you identify and address it specifically, all your other efforts might be wasted energy.  

SO, how do you figure it out? 

The episode introduces a powerful diagnostic question that cuts through confusion. The answer often points directly to your primary constraint. This simple framework works whether you're building a business, improving your fitness, or enhancing your relationships. 

Most importantly, you'll understand why putting tremendous effort into solving the wrong problems leads nowhere, even when those efforts seem productive. 

By getting crystal clear about your destination and systematically identifying what's truly holding you back, you can finally make the progress that's eluded you. 

Ready to break through what's really blocking your potential? Listen now, and discover how to focus your limited resources on what actually matters for your unique journey forward.  

Transcript

Welcome to Change Wired Podcast

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast, where we're learning together how to apply the best well-researched, science-backed and life-applicable tools, strategies, use cases, all with the purpose to figure out how to change our psychology, how to change our mindset, how to change our psychology, how to change our mindset, how to change our body, how to change and design our systems and thinking, and doing so, we could grow and change and adapt and get closer to living that life experience that we all have in our heads and in order to Somehow that's kind of like life design we have these visions, the dream, and something inside of us knows what we need to grow into and that vision it's changing. It's always in transition on this journey. It's not like you achieve it and you're done. No, all of us have this next level and we always feel what that next level is and that next level is moving and every day when we wake up, we have the opportunity to move closer to that next level. You know, something that I've been also thinking about for the past couple of days, also because of the conversations on podcasts and with people that I've been having this is the slowest moment of change in time. So, guys, if you are feeling overwhelmed with all the things changing and shifting and you want to take it easy, have it slower. Bad news I don't think that's ever going to happen. I think we are living in the slowest time right now and it's only going to accelerate.

Speaker 1 2:00

But as we grow to the occasion, as we develop ourselves, as we develop systems and the way of functioning and being and succeeding and working with this moment and moving into the future, we'll get better at it. If we decide that it's something that we want to embrace and get better at, versus resisting and hoping that it all going to get back to quote unquote normal. There's going to be no normal anymore. It just always going to be in transition and change and, just like futurists were telling us for probably a few decades, we're going to get into this singularity, almost moment where things are just going to be in the constant shift and change and you either play with it and adapt and embrace it or you're going to be suffering a lot and feeling like life is just unmanageable for you. But it's also a choice and I believe that we have the capacity to embrace and adapt and succeed in our amazing time that we are living in. But besides that, today I want to chat about achieving our goals.

Speaker 1 3:15

Even in this fast-paced environment that, again, from everything that we are seeing right now, is just going to accelerate, achieving our goals is often about just one thing, believe it or not, guys, and that thing is going to be shifting and that thing is often called in system thinking as a discipline, a constraint, number one constraint. There is usually again. There is usually again coming from the books on system thinking, on turnarounds, on solving problems, on decision making. There is usually one biggest constraint that's holding us back from moving closer towards our next level or our goal. And once we figure that out, what that number one constraint is, and we actually become intentional about putting our resources to solving for this problem or to improving this state on this number one constraint, once we do that, things start moving, things start shifting, things start progressing. But very often because we don't really know how to approach it, because we have never done it before, because we've never solved for it before, we kind of start avoiding this exact thing that's holding us back and it feels like a lot of suffering because we want to move forward but we also kind of don't want to be solving this thing that is in front of us, because we don't really know how to solve it.

Number One Constraint Theory

Speaker 1 4:47

So yesterday I attended online a power pot. That is sort of business support group, where we share our challenges and we try doing our best to help each other to overcome this challenge, and what I noticed is most of the advice given still is still meaning like we should know better by now, but somehow we just don't. We fall into this advice giving mode and we don't notice how we start taking people into our story and looking at their problem from our perspective, where we should try to do our best to get into their shoes as well as possible before we start giving advice. What it means is what I mean here is often we start giving advice from like this is my story, this is what I did, this is what worked for me, and now I'm convinced that this thing is going to solve your problem as well, because I believe somehow internally, that you're probably in the same shoes that I'm in, and we all know that someone else is never in your shoes, and so when you look at someone's success or how someone solved their problem, there are many factors that come into play and they have their story, they have their strengths, they have their weaknesses, they have their specific environment, they have their specific goal. We often start giving advice, like the person says well, this is my challenge.

The Problem With Advice Giving

Speaker 1 6:25

But we often forget to ask, like, what is your goal? What are you trying to achieve here? Like, ultimately, where are you trying to achieve here? Like, ultimately, where are you going in the future? Because that will define what your number one constraint is. Because, probably because of your goal, you're trying to go about solving that problem through filtering everything through the filter of your goal. Filtering everything through the filter of your goal.

Speaker 1 6:53

Reading this book, rereading this book, reset how to Change what's Not Working by Dan Heath, and it's all about system thinking and it's all about finding leverage points to solve for number one constraints so we could move forward and forward, and forward and make progress. But I think, guys, that number one constraint depends on the goal that we have. Even in the book, dan says number one constraint only makes sense in the context of your goal. Let's say, if your goal is to build your business and get more clients, but ultimately, what's your goal? What kind of clients, what kind of business are you trying to build? Are you trying to build, let's say, a multi-million dollar business and you want to work with. You want to serve a lot of people, or you're satisfied with maybe less income or maybe working with less people. You're like you know, I actually want to work with just maybe 10 people, but delivering this very high-touch service and, because of that, charging premium for that. And I want to work one-on-one, not deliver a solution at scale, and these are very different goals.

Goals Define Constraints

Speaker 1 8:16

So, before figuring out what's the main constraint, we need to make sure that we have a very clear definition of the goal and what the future, when we achieve this goal, looks like, because, depending on that, we'll need different solutions and we'll have different obstacles and we'll have different constraints and we'll need different solutions to solve that. And so what I found attending this business power pot, this business support group, is that we didn't spend enough time asking the person now, what are you trying to achieve, what is the ultimate goal, what is your vision, how do you know that you arrived there and what are your strengths, what are your resources and what do you believe your number one constraint is? And only after that, maybe sharing our experience and saying things like this is how I would approach solving for this problem, and this is why, where I'm coming from, this is why I think so. In the book, there is also this question that I also absolutely loved about how to figure out what your number one constraint is, to start prioritizing your resources and your time and your energy towards solving for that one constraint versus, as the book also mentions when you put your energy, your resources into solving for the wrong constraint. It's a total waste because you're actually not going to solve the problem that's holding you back and so you're not going to be making progress, even though you might feel like you're doing all this hard work and you're solving problems. But if it's not the problem that's holding you back, then the solution will not move you forward. Problem that's holding you back, then the solution will not move you forward.

Speaker 1 10:19

In the book, dan brings up this example of fast food joints McDonald's or Chick-fil-A or Vendis and they have a lot of data actually available on how they achieve this record numbers of serving a record number of customers, and so in this example, dan talks about how each of those establishments do their best to figure out what their number one constraint is to serve more customers and their goal they are prioritizing for solving the most amount of customers the fastest. And so then they walk the system and they figure out okay, what's holding us back? Is it that we don't flip enough burgers? Is it that we don't have a drive-through figured out and people are just stuck in traffic even though we could be serving more people? What is our number one constraint? And in those establishments they would have different constraints at different points and they would have to figure out one by one what the number one constraint is towards that goal of serving the most amount of customers per unit of time.

Finding Your Main Constraint Question

Speaker 1 11:34

So what's the number one constraint is now, maybe it's not having enough people or work stations, and maybe somebody is doing a really great job at flipping those burgers, burger meat, but maybe someone's not doing a great enough job or the system is not optimized for putting those burger meats into the buns. Where is the sticking point? And once they figure that out, they start figuring out a way how to brainstorm for that, how to solve for that. And once they do that, there is another constraint coming up and they reiterate, reiterate, reiterate, and also with different locations, their constraint point might be moving, and all for the goal of serving the most number of customers per unit of time and the very strict definition of the goal allows them to then figure out that number one constraint faster goal allows them to then figure out that number one constraint faster. So then they can solve for that and move forward towards their goal. But then let's say again if somebody's not flipping those burgers fast enough and you're trying to increase the traffic, well it doesn't matter how much speed you add to the traffic through your drive-through if somebody's just not making burgers fast enough.

Speaker 1 12:51

And that same thing applies to our businesses, our health, our relationship. Like, let's say, someone has the best nutrition and exercise program. They know it's the best and it works for their body and their goals and it's like cutting edge, et cetera. But if they don't have the capacity to regulate their stress and emotions and they end up quite often overeating on whatever that food is late at night, it doesn't matter what kind of perfect diet system they have, if they don't solve for that overeating at night problem, then the whole system not going to move towards its goal. So the same thing applies everywhere.

Speaker 1 13:37

At some point in my nutrition journey I had to figure out how to manage stress as well, because no matter what kind of again of nutrition or health protocol I had, I would self-sabotage myself with, I don't know, eating pizza, cookies and all these sweets. I would, at least once a week, go to the store and buy all this food just to balance out my emotions. And so once I solved for that First was super easy and I'm in the best shape I can be. For the past, I don't know five, seven years, how long has it been, maybe more so. Once you solve the main constraint, guys, that's when things start moving.

Speaker 1 14:13

A really great question to help you figure out what that number one constraint is in your business. For example, today I woke up and I was thinking I want to work in the next couple of months. I want to start working on this project of applying behavioral science to help the companies close the gap between strategy and execution, specifically in Saudi Arabia. So that is my goal to figure out for the next month and a half till the end of August. That's my goal and I asked myself so what's my number one constraint here? And I still realizing you know, it's still the conversations that I'm not having because in order to find the right audience and even the articulation, the right articulation of the problem of my ideal customer. Even to figure out that ideal customer, I need to talk to a lot of people and it's still a struggle to schedule enough of those meaningful conversations. And the question in the book is which helped me to again just dial in my focus on conversations. The question in the book is if you were allowed to hire one person to help you achieve your goal, what would that person's role be? And I'm going to repeat the question and then we're going to brainstorm through my situation and a couple of examples to make it clear how you can use this powerful question to help you figure out your number one constraint, so you could optimize your resources, so you could start making progress where you're feeling stuck.

Speaker 1 15:54

So before we jump into that, please, guys, if you find usefulness in this podcast and it's helping you out, even if it's helping you to think better, think about the right things like shifting your focus, is huge. If it's helping you out, please do share, please rate, please review. It's super, super helpful. And I know you don't have time, I don't have time, but if we don't put any energy into the things that we say we believe in, guess what? Those things will have harder time changing our world and we're going to be in a world which we like less, where we could be in the world, improving it every day towards the things that we want, like having more of people who understand these principles and live these principles in their life. Could that be such an amazing thing when you have more people listening to the podcast, like this podcast, and then helping you out to figure things out in real life? That's the purpose of this podcast, so please do share review.

The Value of Specificity

Speaker 1 17:01

And now back to the episode and back to the question, the question that I got from Dan Heath's book Reset how to Change what's Not Working. It's all about leverage in the system and finding those leverage points, and one of the biggest things in the whole book is finding that number one constraint that's holding your progress back. While you are trying to figure out all the smaller things that might be contributing to something else might not be, but until we figure out this number one constraint and solve for that, nothing is moving to the next stage, next level. And the question that might help you to figure out that number one constraint is if you were allowed to hire one person, maybe a whole team to help you achieve your goal. What would that person's role be? What would that team do for you?

Speaker 1 17:53

For me, the team would start scheduling conversations with potentially buyers like digital transformation, leaders, like HR people, like cybersecurity and compliance officers. All of these people potentially might be great allies, might be the people who need my help to do their job better so their organization and goals move better. So that is the job, the role. That is what the person, the team I would hire for, would do. They would search for those people, specifically in Saudi Arabia, specifically in companies in telecommunications, in technology, in AI, in innovation, this fast-paced changing industries or financial institutions who need to implement a lot of digital solutions and create more convenience than ever for evolving needs of their customers.

Speaker 1 18:57

Right, I would hire a team, I would hire people to help me have more of these conversations, so then together we figure out who the right person is and what the right problem is, and how to articulate our value and offer and structure our work so we could help our ideal customer to solve for this problem. So that's my answer to this question, and the same applies to relationships that you might be working on, to your health and fitness that you might be working on. If you were allowed to hire the person to help you with that. Like back in the day, I would hire a person again back to health and fitness who would help me to figure out how to start that overeating Like you know, a coach or some sort of therapist, or probably I would think of a coach to help me figure out that problem In terms of relationships. Like, who do you need to hire to help you figure out your relationships? Who would you hire to help you with that?

Speaker 1 19:58

And sometimes it's not going to point you right away to the exact problem, like exact thing that you need to solve, the exact constraint, maybe in your own psychology, in your own mindset, but it will point you to a place where it's most likely located, that number one constraint. Like, let's say, if in your relationships you end up having maybe fights or certain other issues I don't know, maybe people leaving or you connect with people who drain you, you don't know exactly where this problem coming from, but you probably know, like you know, if I were to hire someone, I would hire I don't know a therapist, a coach, an ex kind of help to help me figure that out. And that's where your number one constraint is and that's where you need to start digging and applying resources that you have, the wisdom, maybe learning more, maybe connecting with people who might have the answer, maybe chat GPT asking you know I have this problem what can be helpful, what can be my number one constraint? And just start digging. Because, as Dan Heath figured out in all of these business cases that he worked at, in all of the research that he did and he did quite a lot of research If you go through any of his books, if anything you will learn from his books is that Figure out that number one constraint and start working on that.

Final Reflections and Call to Action

Speaker 1 21:35

And Dan proposes again this question if you were allowed to hire one person to help you achieve your goal, what would that person or whole team do? And then also always, always remember constraints only make sense in the context of your goals. What are you hiding? Because if I'm hiding again to serve millions of people, it's not the same as trying to solve 10, 15 people with high-touch service, completely different goals. And that's why I'm shifting my offerings and how I position my company and my branding, because of understanding where I want to go and I want to change environments to help us unlock more human potential at scale, not one-on-one, and that's why I'm heading into workplaces and that's why I'm having my number one constraint of having more conversations. You see how it all connects.

Speaker 1 22:33

Unless you are very specific about the future and about your goal, any advice might sound like a great idea and will help you to do absolutely nothing, and that's the sad part about it. Whether you go to business support group or try to get advice from mentors, try to do your best to give them the contacts, the goal where you're trying to create, to build, because if they don't have that and they will give you advice. And, even worse, you're going to listen to that advice and you're going to put a lot of hard work and actually solve a lot of problems and then you're actually not going to be moving in a meaningful way toward what was your ultimate goal. That's an ultimate failure putting all this hard work and making progress, but then realizing you were hiding the wrong way all the way through. So if you were allowed to hire one person to help you achieve your goal, what would that person's role be?

Speaker 1 23:38

And remember, your constraints only make sense in the context of your goals. So where are you heading? Because if you don't know where you're going, any road will lead you there. Hope this podcast was useful and a great prompt for your weekend reflection. Analyze what's working, what's not working and what you need to do more of less of to move you closer to where you're trying to go in any area of your life. And till next time, guys, do some reflection, stay tuned and keep growing.