Constraint → Lever → $ → Plan → Risk

What’s up y’all. I’m currently writing this newsletter the morning of the 6th just 8 hours prior to this publishing.

Why?

Because this was 4th of July weekend and we had friends in town since Wednesday and I’m terrible at time management.

Either way, hope you all had an amazing week/weekend and are ready to get back to it this week if you took time off.

Today I want to discuss something I’ve been getting a lot of and it sounds something like this:

“Hey Ned, LOOOOVVVEEE the newsletter, but like what do you do all day in real life?”

My answer?

I’m a professional pattern recognizer who finds constraints in our business and eliminates them.

Now you may be wondering what the hell that means and that’s why I’m writing this post.

I don’t just find patterns in work, I find them in my physical walk, my relationships, how I parent, my spiritual walk… everything.

It’s sort of my super power.

Hand me a scenario, toss me a bit of context and I’ll find the constraint holding you and/or your business back.

So today I’m going to share with you my tried and true framework called the CL$PR to help you literally find any constraint and eliminate it from your life because here’s the thing.

Momentum dies where constraints hide…. and if those pesky constraints cant hide… well… you’ll rarely lose momentum.

Today we’ll zoom in on how to do that at work and at home.

Why “Just Work Harder” Fails

The gurus will tell you to work harder.

They’ll tell you to use another cold call opener or buy a course.

Some will even try to tell you that it’s your “mindset”.

Here’s the thing, maybe you are struggling with something that needs a mindset upgrade. Maybe your cold call opener does suck, and sometimes you may just have to work harder.

But if you don’t know what it is specifically, you’re just throwing a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and hoping it sticks.

Worse, you’re throwing a bunch of time, money and effort at the wall and getting no return.

Today I’m not going to tell you to work harder.

I’m not going to tell you to do better.

I’m not even going to talk to you about your shitty mindset.

I’m going to give you the exact steps to find out EXACTLY what’s holding you back and then EXACTLY how to apply force so you lose the constraint.

No fluff, nothing to sell you, just a framework that guides you to where you were meant to be in this journey we call life.

The Constraint Finding Field Guide

1. The Three Lens Audit

Run each lens until one bottleneck shouts louder than the rest.

2. Pattern Recognition 101

1. RFM Grid (Recency-Frequency-Magnitude).

   • Recency: How recently did the problem bite?

   • Frequency: How often?

   • Magnitude: How big is the pain (revenue lost, calories over, emotional hit)?
     Anything scoring 8/9/10 on the grid is your choke-point.

2. The “Five Whys” Punch-List.
   Keep asking “Why?” until the answer is either data or human behavior.
   Example:

   • Close rate dropped → Reps talk 70 % of the call → Reps follow a 43-question script → Script was written by a marketer who never sold →Constraint = Wrong script owner.

3. Lag vs. Lead Metric Split.

   • Lag: Cash in the bank, scale weight, romance score.

   • Lead: Dials/day, protein grams, tech free minutes with spouse.

     • The constraint usually hides in the lead metric you’re not tracking.

3. Quick Examples - Finding the Real Blockage

One bottleneck. One lead metric. Anything else is noise.

Deploy CL$PR on the Bottleneck

1. Constraint – The choke point you just isolated.

2. Lever – One action that puts the biggest wrench in that choke point.

3. $ – Quantify upside: revenue, fat-loss %, emotional equity… pick a number that matters.

4. Plan – Calendar backed sprint (we’ll map below).

5. Risk – How bad, how likely, and how you’ll cap it.

The 90-Day Sprint Calendar

Real World Snapshots

Rule of Thumb: If the upside can move a core metric ≥ 20 % and the downside is capped at a few hours or a few bucks, pull the lever…fast.

Make It Stick: Your 7-Day Challenge

1. Run the Three Lens Audit. Write the one choke point that appears twice.

2. Assign a Lead Metric you can log daily in under 60 seconds.

3. Draft the Tiny Lever you’ll A/B for Days 0-10.

4. Block Pilot and Codify phases on your Google Calendar right now.

5. Reply to this email with your constraint + lead metric. Accountability beats motivation.

Momentum loves clarity. Chaos loves vagueness. Choose clarity.

Your Turn:

What’s the constraint you’re hunting this quarter? Hit reply and tell me. Let’s rip the lever and watch the scoreboard jump.

– Ned

P.S. Know someone drowning in bottlenecks and busywork? Forward this. They’ll thank you later… I’ll thank you immediately.