What’s holding you back is not having something holding you back.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad, number 1074, to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. This message is specially dedicated to Karin Abarbanel.

Here’s the upgrade: You may think unlimited freedom is what you need to excel, but upgraded thinking understands that constraints—real, physical, intentional limits—are what unlock your best.

Here’s the story: yesterday I finished David Epstein’s new book titled, Inside the Box: How Constraints Make Us Better. In it he tells the story of an Australian swim club. Coaches were helping swimmers develop a tighter, more efficient stroke for reducing drag and improving propulsion. But the coaches didn’t bark instructions. They placed hoops underwater. Swimmers had to navigate through them without touching the sides. That’s it. The coaches didn’t have to yell “pull your elbows in” or “tighten your stroke.” They just put hoops in the water.

What happened? Each swimmer had to experiment. To adjust. To feel their way through the constraint. And in doing that—in discovering their own way through the boundary—they found solutions their coaches never could have told them. Tighter stroke. Better timing. Efficiency born from necessity, not instruction. The constraint didn’t limit them. It freed them to find what works for them. It forced self-discovery.

Epstein’s research across sports, music, and business shows the same pattern. When you have unlimited options, you waste energy deciding. When you have a real boundary, you focus. You innovate within it. You stop asking “what if I had more?” and start asking “what can I do with this?”

This is the opposite of what we’ve been told. We’ve been told freedom is fuel. More choices. More options. Unlimited. Better. But the evidence says otherwise: boundaries drive breakthrough. A limited budget sparks creativity. A deadline forges focus. A rule, paradoxically, opens doors. A hoop forces you to swim better. The discipline of the hoop equaled freedom of a more efficient stroke.

In sports, business, art, life—the constraints you’re facing aren’t obstacles. They’re the teacher. They’re the filter. They’re what separates the people who figure out how to get better from the people who just wish for better. The better story to tell yourself is, “The constraints I’m facing aren’t holding me back. They’re teaching me how to get better. And the solutions I find within this boundary will be stronger than anything I could’ve been handed.” Constraint is not the enemy of excellence. It’s the doorway. Here’s what I want you to do: Look at one constraint you’re living with right now. Your time. Your budget. Your resources. Your rules. Don’t see it as a wall. See it as a hoop. See it as an invitation to figure out what you’re actually capable of.

Tell me what that constraint is, and what you discovered by working within it, at fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and asks, “When have you experienced limitations benefiting you?” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, at fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at www.fromchad.com.