As per usual, I look for something in the James Clear email I think is useful and is, from my experience, a truism.
I liked what I read when he said, “avoid being your own bottleneck.  If you lack the skills, be willing to look foolish while you learn them.  If you lack the connections, be courageous enough to reach out and build them.  If you feel uncertain, be bold enough to figure it out along the way.  Many people have the ability, but they talk themselves out of trying."
To me one of the greatest hindrances to achieving all I would like to is fear and a lack of self-belief.  It seems so easy to me to talk myself out of something as I cannot see myself doing it or going there.  It is so frustrating when it is a dream of mine to go there.
In that instance I need to determine why I am the way I am.  It seems that often to me it is accepting the limiting thoughts of another.  “No one in this family has ever done that.”  “You need a good dose of realism.  Stop dreaming.  You’ll get hurt.”
There are many ways one is put down and discouraged from giving it a go.  It is interesting to me the word discourage has courage in it, but the dis is against it being exhibited.  I will never forget the Ziz Ziggler story of the fleas.  They were placed in a bottle with a lid on it.  They jumped as high as the lid.  There came a point where the lid could be removed and the flees would only every jump as high as the lid and there was no concern that they would escape.  They had been conditioned to the point of going no further.
For me it is like talking myself out of trying.  Becoming my own bottleneck.
I need help to reach my potential.  Growth always means going beyond limits.  Yet so often the limits I set are based on my own perceptions and have nothing to do with my potential.  As far as I am concerned, I get one shot at this.  I may as well give it a go.  I’ll never never know, if I never never go.” 

There is an old saying that, “you should know your place” or variations of that.  I only know it as a seemingly put down.  The context is normally some upperty person who is talking to someone they consider lower than themselves.
I reckon the US Dictionary puts it well when it says, “The phrase "know your place" is a popular English idiom that primarily means understanding and acknowledging one's role or position within a given social or hierarchical structure.”
It is not confined to what some consider the lower classes.  Someone can be quite high up in the social structures but think of themselves more highly than they should.  It seems - given the right conditions, someone can be “put in their place” at any position.
Yet this morning I was thinking about it and if I take away all the negative connotations, then I think it is a real healthy thing.
Why I think of it as a good thing is that when I know my place I thrive.  My actions do the talking for me.  They reckon everyone finds their level.  If I do my job well, I tend to go up while if I do something badly or am out of my depth, I will tend to go to whatever level suits me.
The thing for me is my aspirations should not impede my progress.   Yet if I talk myself up in a boastful manner, I am likely to be seen as a threat to those above.
I am a total believer in just doing what I am assigned to do well and letting my actions do the talking.  I am also a believer in making the one above me look good and they tend to be more inclined in that instant to make me look good.  I do not pretend that is the case at all times, but fortunately it is the case most times.
When I was in charge of an organization my motto was, “make them look good and they will make you look good.”  That turned out to be the way things were.  To my mind it is silly to make an enemy of those with the power above me.  I may not agree with all but self-promotion threatens and I am more likely to be hindered rather than helped when I talk down the ones above.
So whatever my place is, when I stick to it, I thrive.  Whether high or low in the social structure I am most content when I am where I am meant to be and doing my job well.

It is amazing.  I can have a goal, a strong desire or an aim.  Or as they say a “vision statement.”  I can plan everything out and say, “this should work.”
But to me there is a but and it is a big but.  I need to do it.  I need to set out on the path of the unknown.  I may think I know.  I may have done everything.  A plus B should equal C according to my planning.  
Yet I need to do it.  Aims, goals, desires are one thing.  It is necessary and good to have them.  Yet as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
There are those who theorize about things.  They become experts in the way things should unfold.  There is teaching and conferences on difficulties and solutions.  Yet in my mind a true expert is someone who does not neglect the theory but who practices it an makes it work.
One thing I am very much against is attempting something and not seeing it work and maintaining the same methodology. I reckon it is true what they say that it is silly to do something the same way and expect different results.  Not always is theory a neat fit.  Sometimes there is a tweaking required.  Sometimes a way of doing things may be well meant, and work on the drawing board, but where the rubber meets the road it is necessary to change things up a bit.
The important thing to me is not the theory but the result.  I totally believe in theory, but I do not see it as the master.  I see it as the servant of the practical.  I will totally immerse myself in the study of the reasons behind why something should happen.  But in my mind there are times something is like 95% of the way to go, and there is a 5% that needs adjustment.
So often someone like a mechanic has everything in place (like a motor) and the consensus is this should work.  Yet it does not.  Often there is one thing that is not right that prevents the rest of the thing working.  It is getting that thing working as it should that enables the whole thing to do what it was designed to do.
I feel it is the same with a goal I may pursue.  Most may be right but still it is not achieving the aims I have.  I do not keep on with something that does not work.  I find out why it does not work and make the necessary changes.
Theory is great but only doing produces results.