My Comment On Rich Schefren's Blog

Hi Rich,

I must thank you again for delivering such a valuable report - better than a lot of books. I can imagine what your coaching must be like and hope that I will be able to have you as a coach someday soon.

I can see that I can improve on all of the constraints described, but it all really boils down to the following:

1) Main Constraint responsible for all past failures:

My main constraint is numero uno: a fear of failure and not being confident about the goals that I set, based on low self-esteem (to be honest).

I have not had definite positive plans for the future that I have consistently worked towards. I have procrastinated because I did not fully believe I was capable of achieving those goals. I realized that I needed to break the big goals down into smaller ones so that I would not be intimidated by them.

The symptom of a lack of money is the result of failure to take action and fail as fast as possible. Not learning from past mistakes and repeating the same mistakes over again is another symptom.

2) How Many Constraints Away Am I From Having The Business and The Life of My Dreams?

I feel I am four constraints away from the business and life of my dreams.

However, overcoming just two constraints would be a fantastic improvement in my life and would allow for the major, positive changes described in point 3).

Besides constraint #1 - (which I had already started to take action on a while back) the other constraints I believe will release massive energy are the following:

Constraint #2: “Flying Blind”: I think I can identify this in all areas of my life, so it must be very important: the symptom is false assumptions about people and social situations, but also about who my customer is and what they want.

To quantify this in time, I believe I would have achieved every single goal I had for this year already had I overcome this one constraint.

Constraint #4: Time. The cause of this is a lack of self-discipline and lack of boundaries on the amount of time I allow for email & social networking, which leads me back to #1 again. I think I am procrastinating when I spend too much time on things like this.

Another symptom is using my children as a crutch; my excuse for failure.

Constraint #5 The lack of a personal network. One of my main problems/obstacles/symptoms is social isolation, and a lack of a personal network is the reason behind this. A strong personal network is important in all areas of life. This doesn’t mean I have to live in a certain place.

3) The three greatest benefits I will enjoy once those constraints are removed:
I believe just removing one constraint will release enormous energy. Releasing all four constraints would allow me to:

1. Become debt-free and have a chunk of money saved.
2. Buy a house again, preferably in the States. New home, new life!
3. Take a vacation with the kids to Asia: (Japan, Taiwan, Korea)