In this edition of the Peak Performance Newsletter, we will be discussing:

1. What is a limiting constraint?

2. Why most people deter away from their real constraint.

3. How can you find your “real” limiting constraint.

But before we dive into this topic,

What is a Limiting Constraint?

A limiting constraint can be defined as either a setback or a physical/physiological barrier that is preventing you from achieving your fullest potential. The reason why finding your constraint is very important, especially in the realm of self-development is because it can help us identify roadblocks and also help you break through plateaus. Similar to how you would break through plateaus in the gym. Usually during this period of yourself development journey, it would be commonly depicted that you are going in an exponential trend which was stated previously in my guide on full dopamine detox guide on how to make hard things feel fun (part 2).

Feel free to check it out if you’re interested in learning more on how to apply a dopamine detox.

Even though we are going in an exponential trend, it would be beneficial for us to view this entire period of time on a larger, zoom-out scale. So hopefully if you continue to stay on this journey for a large majority of your lifetime, then a graph that would more accurately show your progress would be this:

Exponential Graph:

Even though it is expected for us to be on an exponential path over a long period of time, we can safely assume that on this journey, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs. (Which is represented on the first graph) This can be especially prevalent during your beginner to intermediate stage of yourself development journey (currently I would say that I am in the intermediate stage right now) Just because there’s always going to be some days where you’re not being consistent with your habits, you slack off here a bit and there, but we should strive to have the higher ratio of days spent improving yourself and with days off. As long as we maintain or even exceed your expectations of that consistency baseline, we can make a significant amount of progress over a long period of time.

Now obviously, we don’t want to purposely try to be inconsistent and actively try to miss days, but of course things happen and with some days that we can’t dedicate all of our time into developing oneself. The reason why I’m brushing it off is because we’re trying to look at this in a wider perspective, possibly within a year. I would say that the longer you are on this journey, the less likely you are to miss your habits. This is because you have reinforced these habits into your brain, so it is now easier to do but also harder to not do.

So where am I going with this?

What I’m saying is that in order to achieve great results, we must define our mission or our “season of __x___. . We know that we are doing self-improvement, but what exactly are you specially working on to achieve. In general, there are the 3 main areas of life that we work on, health, wealth, or relationships. We can break these down into smaller categories and then focus on what you want to work on exactly. Do you want to improve your physical health, your mental health? Do you want to build a business that you’re passionate about, do you want to meet likeminded people that have the same mindset as you?

Ask yourself these questions and you will begin to find what area of yourself improvement that you want to work on. That will be your “mission” or “season of (physical health, mental health, etc.)” to focus on until you believe that you obtained the results that you wanted.

But Most Importantly, ask yourself…

Is this my limiting constraint?

You see, often many of us latch on to a specific area of self-improvement that we find to have a sense of familiarity in. Although it is still beneficial to work on any area of self-improvement, it will always not give you the benefits that you’ve wanted if that area of self-improvement wasn’t your limiting constraint.

The goal of this post is to help you identify your limiting constraint which will then allow you to surpass your limitations and achieve even more exponential results.

Remember the first graph that you looked at? That’s the graph of a person who is still receiving great results but is still experiencing the ups and downs of not staying consistent from time to time. It’s still good though since they are still going in an exponential path.

This is the graph of a person who has experienced great results, was in an exponential path, but rather focused on another area of self-improvement but did not focus on their limiting constraint.

It goes up exponentially, and then it just stays stagnant, no decrease or increase, this shows that no more growth is happening currently at this period of time. (You can visualize the 2nd line to be horizontal, representing a stagnant line if it helps you visualize it better)

And best of all, this was the graph of my own self-development journey a couple months back, where I hit my biggest plateau. Stick around to find out on why I hit this roadblock. ☹

Why Most People Deter away from their real limiting constraint:

There can be many factors that come into play when it comes to not being able to find your limiting constraint. This can range from:

• Child-hood trauma

• Insecurities

• Negative Influences

• Negative environment

• etc.

For my story in particular, I was a mix of all of these factors that contributed to my plateau. So, let’s take a look into my story and see where my pitfalls so hopefully it can help you avoid the same mistakes that I had to learn on your own self-development journey. You’ll definitely find some key points in my story which can help you out a lot.

Chapter 1:

Growing up, I have always been a skinny kid. I mean there were other names too, frail, thin, scrawny, you name it. I wouldn’t say that I was at the point of being anorexic or anything, but definitely smaller compared to most people my age in terms of bone density, muscle mass, and fat. This was just due to having a bad diet, not eating enough, and doing no resistance training growing up.

Although I would get picked on for being a scrawny kid from time to time, I never really got bothered by it. The reason is that even though I was referred to as a skinny person, you could never say that I wasn’t an athletic person. Even though I had a smaller frame, I was very athletic for my age you know during elementary and middle school, and I was able to compete with the top guys in my grade and even for the entire school at one point.

Due to my skinner frame and possibly some natural talent, I was light on my feet which allowed me to be sprint faster than most people, run more miles than most people, be more agile than most people in sports, and be more explosive than most people.

The best part about it was that I loved where I was at in terms of my physical abilities. I liked being physically competent and being able to run without feeling out of breath. Sure, you could say that you’re stronger than me in terms of raw strength, but when it comes to pure endurance, I was known for the person who would reign supreme in that area.

This isn’t for me to stroke my own ego, but it’s just to help you understand my mentality during this point. I felt very content with myself, my mental health was at an all-time high, and I didn’t let other people punk me for having a scrawny physique. All that really mattered during that time was if I enjoyed being this scrawny, but athletic dude, which I could confidently say that I was.

Chapter 2:

Now unfortunately this began to go downhill once I started to let these negative thoughts hijack my mind. I was receiving constant pressure from my relatives, some of my classmates, but most of them were from my relatives. So, overtime I consciously or un-consciously began to let these negative thoughts into my head which entirely changed the course of my self-improvement journey today. Insecurities started to creep in and before long I started to live by the narrative of the people who were criticizing me in the first place.

I soon found myself becoming extremely obsessive in building muscle and incorporating body-building style of training, which seems healthy to do on the surface. But it wasn’t until a little while after I started to take my mental health more seriously is that I wasn’t trying build muscle and get big out of improving myself but, it was the best way that I found to feed my insecurities of being the scrawny kid. I used bodybuilding as a coping/defense mechanism to hide the fact that I was insecure, rather than owning up to it like how I did before.

I was trying to hide behind this mask that I’ve made for myself, shielding away behind a lump of added muscle. I found myself overcompensating that I was a weak and frail person on the inside by looking more confident on the outside.

But if you met me in person, you would soon find out I had very low self-esteem about myself even though I looked like this jacked individual. Even the slightest amount of praise or compliment from someone else, I found find myself reverting back to the fetal position, quite figuratively and literally.

This wouldn’t be a onetime thing either, even if someone gave me the slightest amount of resistance or pushback, my mind, body, and soul would just revert back to the fetal position, probably because of a coping mechanism to hide away my insecurities. I had 0 confidence, 0 self-esteem about myself, and I would constantly stutter or start mumbling my words whenever I tried to talk to someone.

Sure, I have built myself an impressive physique, but because I did not fix my limiting constraint, I faced the negative drawbacks of not doing so.

My negative constraint all along was my fragile and weak mentality against outside influences and not the fact that I didn’t have muscle on my frame.

I was able to summarize my struggles into a few paragraphs that you’ve read above, but in reality, it took me over 2 YEARS to even realize that I was digging myself into this rut. So that’s why I think that it can be beneficial for you to truly ask yourself,

What is my limiting constraint?

For my story, I noticed that the main reason why I was unable to focus on my limiting constraint is 1. due to my insecurities and 2. because I was already very familiar with physical exercise. The more familiar or experienced that you are to a certain area of self-improvement, the more attached you are going to be with that type of discipline. Similar to how a bodybuilder will be likely to focus on building the best physique rather than trying to become the best chest player.

It is in our nature to be more attached to things that we are good at, but it would require a lot of self-awareness, courage, and discipline to focus on a skill that we aren’t good at. So, I think that there’s always a certain bias when it comes to that. That’s why I think I was unable to get out of this rut for so long because bodybuilding/fitness became so attached to my identity that it hindered or blinded me from seeing the real problem.

How can you find your “real” constraint?

Unlike most of the actionable steps that I provide here on these posts, this one is the hardest to solve since the solution is intangible and abstract. But some key traits that can help you go a long way to finding out your real constraint is self-awareness and honesty.

So here is a list of actionable steps that can help get you closer to finding your constraint:

1. Be honest with yourself and leave your ego at the door.

Identifying your weaknesses takes a lot of guts, so it’s important to really be honest with yourself and not let your ego blind you from you actually solving the root problem. You don’t have to be honest with me or anyone else but at least be honest with yourself. If you can’t be honest with yourself and have the humility to notice your flaws, then growth will be an uphill battle for you.

2. Grab a piece of paper and pen, write down you're all of your flaws and what you really need to improve on, rank all of these flaws from least importance to most importance. Then highlight the top flaw of most importance.

3. Remind yourself every day to work on your limiting constraint.

Reminding yourself frequently is key, humans like repetitious nature and patterns, so it is up to you to dedicate your complete focus on your limiting constraint. You will feel some resistance because your mind wants to do what it is easy right now. Do not let it trick you into focusing on a skill that is not your limiting constraint. Block out the noise and just focus completely on you, it is your choice to be better or to stay at the same spot that you were before. It’s just a matter of discipline, willpower, and most importantly, courage.