You Are The Bottleneck Part 2: forget more to achieve more. And how to find 97 extra hours per year.

The biggest thing blocking your next goal might be embarrassingly small. A forgotten errand. A running mental list. The constant drip of “don’t forget” tasks that steal your working memory until you are too tired to think creatively, plan strategically, or do the work that actually moves your life forward. From the Mind Matters Summit I attended: if the bottleneck of your potential is you, then the fix is not more hustle. It is building simple systems that carry the trivial so your brain ca...

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  The bottleneck of your potential is you. Part two. Yes, yesterday I attended Mindset Mind Matters Summit here in Cape Town. And one of the key themes was this idea that Jason Goliath, the host, the emcee of the event, brought to the surface and was circling back, coming back to it over and over again, is this idea, this theme of the only thing that is between you and your dream, your desired future,

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  whatever it is, whatever goal you want to achieve, the only thing that is in the way of what you want is you.

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  The next level of you that needs, that you need to grow into so that the goal that you want is a side effect of you being you. I always like to bring this idea to my client that the, if you already were the person who has your goal, you would already have it. Like, for example, back to the basics, back to fitness, weight loss, six pack abs. If you already were the person with the habits of the person who has six pack abs

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  and has the fitness that you want, if you had already those habits, the goal would already be yours. And the only thing you really need to change is you, or specifically what you do in order to have your goal as a side effect of that. And so the bottleneck to whatever it is you want to achieve is always you. And that is the hardest part, because then it means that you must stop blaming the world of circumstances for you not having what you want and start looking inwards and asking a much harder question that often your ego does not allow you to seriously ask, like,

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  what is it in me that needs to change in order for me to have this new reality versus the reality that I already have? Because the reality that you already have is a byproduct of who you already are. And so you own different reality, you gotta change you. Okay. By the way, my name is Angela Sharina, your host, I'm your partner in personal and collective transformation, your master certified health, sleep, stress management, executive self-actualization coach, and just someone who is really passionate about and obsessed with human potential,

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  learning how to unlock and use more of that potential in our life, in our world, so we could live the best expression of ourselves, our lives, creating the most positive impact in the world we are capable of every single day. And back to the idea of the bottleneck of your, in your life, or the obstacle to on the way to your dreams, to your goals, why you don't have the goals that you want to have yet.

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  The bottleneck is you. And today we are talking about the other side. Last time we, on the podcast and being, the theme of the bottleneck is you, we talked about how I often coach high achievers, people who already accomplished a lot, to fire themselves from more and more jobs. By the way, if you're interested in hearing more of that, listen to the podcast that we did last time, how I coach high achievers to see the jobs they need to fire themselves

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  from so they could hire themselves on their next level of achievement, right? For me, it was doing my own receipts and invoices, which like, yeah, five minute here, five minute there, and then you end up with hours, if not a week, each month that you spend on those things that don't make you a better version of you, or the end, don't add more value to your clients or to the world in some shape or form. So that podcast is available, it's the podcast before this one. Today we're talking about something even more subtle and invisible that I often have

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  to mirror back or bring to awareness of my clients to make them understand that the things they choose to think about, if those things do not play into a bigger version of them, a bigger version of their vision, those are very often small things that keep them, keep their capacity locked in and not accessible to the next version of self and the goals that they're trying to achieve on their next level. Here is what I mean by that. And I'm going to read to you something that I wrote in my blog today. By the way, you can find this blog, if you are a reader, it's like 57, read in the show notes as always.

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  So there is watering can that I put in front of my door.

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  And I put it there so I don't forget to take it with me on my way out and give it back. And that happened a couple of days ago. So I had a watering can and I put it in front of my door so I don't forget to, to take it with me on my way out to give it back. And because I put it in front of my door, now I can forget about it completely.

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  And why is that important, guys? And here is the bigger idea. My mind then stays empty or empty air without this watering can in it for the stuff that actually matters. Let me explain, let me get in more into that.

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  Stuff that really matters, like client work and how to become a more effective coach for them, stuff like content ideas and how to take it to the next level of impact so I can change more people with it. Interview questions for my podcast to tease out the best stories and the best tools for growth from my inspiring guests. By the way, I had one inspiring guest I interviewed yesterday, which I'm bringing you next after this podcast episode, so stay tuned.

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  But anyhow, back to this idea of not thinking about watering can so I can think about things that actually matter and watering can does not matter that much to me.

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  Technology people will get this faster than, if you are in technology, you probably already are getting this. Your brain is like a computer's storage, like a computer in many ways, and it has storage. And the storage has capacity. The hardware isn't limitless.

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  And if you've ever, dear listener, been felt overwhelmed, you know this, try to do too much, hold too much in your memory, remember too many things, and things start slipping through the cracks all over the place. With your computer, you can get around the limit these days. Cloud storage, Google Drive, you know, what previously was limited by the hardware of your computer is now sort of limitless, because you can put it in cloud and Google and you can upgrade that and store more stuff, right? So you can keep going, doesn't matter how much storage space your computer has.

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  With your brain, systems do the same job.

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  Put the thing, the watering can, in the place and at the time where you need to act and you no longer need to remember it. And why is that important? Have you guessed it? Why is that important? That frees up your working memory.

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  And working memory in your brain is what you need for thinking, creating and making decisions. Working memory definition is a cognitive system in your brain that temporarily, temporarily holds updates and manipulates a limited amount of information in your mind for immediate use. You can think of it as your brain's mental workspace or a temporary sticky note used to complete tasks like problem solving, reading, comprehension and mental math.

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  That is what high achievers do and know of. They outsource anything non-essential that occupies their thinking to systems, to people, to places, to things, to virtual assistants, to stylists, to hairdressers. So more of their thinking can go into what really matters to the work of their life, to their life in general, to the person who they are becoming. It's not that, some examples, Barack Obama or Mark Zuckerberg famously, you know, they famously stated that they don't think or choose their own wardrobe. It's not like they can't figure out what different things they could wear for different

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  occasions, they're smart guys. They just refuse to spend their limited capacity to think well on trivial things that are easy to outsource to other people, like their wardrobe or their food or other trivial decisions.

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  And that's what I get to do with my high achieving clients as well. I help them fire themselves from more and more small daily thinking jobs to free up more and more thinking capacity for their next level of growth for bigger problems to solve. Here is where I use it personally, for example, groceries once a week, shopping, planning, prepping, that eliminates the 226 plus food decisions the average person makes every day. I just don't think about food, I think about it once a week, that's it.

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  A pre-decided wardrobe for every major occasion in my day that eliminates approximately ninety-seven hours a year that average person spends deciding what to wear. For women, it's worse, for guys, less.

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  Two hairstyles for all occasions that eliminates one hundred eighty-two hours average per year, per woman. Average woman spends about one hundred eighty-two hours every year on her hairstyle. For men, less for many different reasons, you know, from shorter hair to just maybe less options available because of shorter hair. So sixty-two hours per year for men. And it all adds up, guys. Add it all up. Can you see now why some people think creating and accomplishing so much more with the same twenty-four hours without getting overwhelmed?

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  We tend to believe that it's big things standing in our way of accomplishment or just having the life that we want. In reality, it's the small things without systems of management. They accumulate quietly. And then one day, they become the loud reason you never reach your next level goals. And you kind of get stuck at the same level just juggling all those small tasks. And you don't even think about that anymore. The small things might be exactly why the big things never happen for you. So, guys, the question of the day. But before we jump into that question, don't forget to share this podcast episode with someone who might be drowning

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  under all of these small things, trying to do them all, especially moms and women, trying to juggle it all, being perfect and not being able to drop any balls. And because of that, not being able to find time and think in space for their big goals or bigger challenges. Great, like, share this podcast episode with at least one of those people, one person. Change that person's life. Be helpful, help me to be helpful to a lot more people. Right?

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  And don't forget, guys, you can also WhatsApp me using the link in the show notes as well, where you can also find the link to the short blog with what I'm talking about today.

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  And then the question of the day. What's your watering can?

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  The one small thing, small system you could put in place today so your mind is more free to plan your big leap, your next big thing, your next big goal. Because again, your brain's capacity to think about things is limited. And I don't see yet any time soon that somebody will invent some cloud storage for your brain. But the systems you create, like that watering can, like shopping thing, prepping for food and thinking about food once a week or about your wardrobe, think about it once and forget about it. Those systems serve as sort of cloud storage

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  for the, to outsource the thinking of smaller things out of your brain into the systems. So then you have the more capacity, more space for your brain to think about bigger challenges, bigger problems, bigger impact you can create in the world. That's why also, guys, if you have any relationship drama, try to resolve it as soon as possible. Because that relationship drama, especially with key people in your life who you, yes, who you interact every day, it will eat up all of your thinking space for ultimately things that should be resolved and done.

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  So then you can move on and think about other things, solve other problems, be helpful in any other way. So the question of today's podcast is, what are, what is one small system you can put in place to stop thinking, to start thinking less of the trivial, to stop thinking less of the trivial and start thinking more of your bigger goals? What is one small system that you commit to today, this week, that you're gonna put in place that will help you to think less, to become more clueless about small things that don't matter and start thinking more,

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  have more capacity to think about bigger goals and desires and leaps and the impact you can create in the world?

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  And that was part number two of You Are the Bottleneck

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  Standing in the Way of Your Next Level Goals. So what is the system? One system this week that you will install that will help you to become less of a bottleneck to your next level achievement? Thank you, guys, for tuning in. Thank you for listening. And till next time, keep growing and keep putting systems in place to think less of small stuff so you can think more of the big stuff.