Latest / The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell / iAlign #62 - The Trap Door Ambitious Engineers Fall Through

Transcript

iAlign #62 - The Trap Door Ambitious Engineers Fall Through · The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the I Align podcast with Flint Mitchell, where I provide stories, resources, and tools for ambitious builders who are ready to gain control over procrastination, overthinking, and distraction.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is a secret trapdoor that ambitious engineers fall through that ends up ruining their year, and I want to explain it through an embarrassing story of my own.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't pay heed to this, there's a chance that you fall into this trapdoor and then end this year in a way that you're not proud of, and also start next year without the momentum that you'd like to have.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Flint Mitchell from Ioline.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I went from a life of procrastination, scrolling, stagnancy, and just feeling behind to one of consistent, clear, confident action and freedom.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome if you're new here.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let me explain this trapdoor through one of my own personal embarrassing failures.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: One time I was working on this project that was a part of a biotech group.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was in the data science world, bioinformatics, and I had all this analysis work that I had to do for them by the end of the year.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But as the end of the year approached, they wanted me to write something up for a scientific presentation of theirs.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this new project, this scientific presentation, was actually going to be significantly less work for me to do and less energy than this massive project that I had been working on for a while that I was falling so behind on.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what I ended up doing is I shifted my focus toward this new shiny project that showed up, and I spent way more time on that.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I effectively completely neglected the larger one that was really my main responsibility.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The thing was that even though the main project was my priority, I had fallen so behind on it that it was appealing to put time and energy into this new thing because it did two things for me.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: One was it gave me the opportunity to start to act as if I was now overwhelmed because I had more things than I could actually handle when the reality is I was already behind.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this was subconscious.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have this thought, that would have been manipulative.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just found myself allowing for the new addition of work to make it seem like I had too much on my plate, and therefore it was a good reason as to why I was so behind when the reality was I was behind because I hadn't done enough work.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: The second piece, and this is the really pernicious trapdoor that I'm talking about, is it gave me an opportunity where this new project, on top of the old project, on top of all the chaos of the holidays, where everyone is in their own minds thinking about not only their work, but their families, their travel, their emotions, like all the things that are going on.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: It makes it easy for us to subconsciously or unconsciously push our main projects under the rug, or pieces of them that we don't want to do, or responsibilities that we have.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of can use the chaos or the noise of the holidays and everything that's happening at the end of the year to almost make some of our responsibilities lesser than we originally promised them, or to go away because they get obfuscated by everything else, which means we're effectively using the disorganization or the chaos of the end of the year as a scapegoat, as an escape for not holding ourselves to the standard of work that we wanted, or not fulfilling the promise or the responsibilities that we committed to.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's what I was doing in this scenario.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of being truthful, I used the chaos of the holidays and this other smaller, shinier project to hide the truth that I was behind.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: What that means is even if this wasn't something that I was consciously trying to do, trying to manipulate the scenario, it still broke the foundation that I had of integrity because that action lacked in integrity.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: That action lacked in also responsibility.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: It lacked in resilience.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: The reality was that new project in the holidays was actually the perfect time for me to learn how to handle my emotions and the stress and the end of the year, and also to effectively prioritize and manage my time and still focus it deeply and intentionally, even when there is chaos.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the chaos becomes a tool for personal development, for growth, and not a tool for escapism or avoidance.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it took me a while to really integrate that lesson and learn how to manage the stress of these experiences while still prioritizing effectively and setting aside time that I could spend intentionally and deeply on focused work to move my objectives and my responsibilities forward.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And not only did it take time for me to do that, it took these fairly embarrassing moments.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: The consequence of this, because I was still going to get this work done eventually, the consequence is that the chaos of the holidays and my excuses allowed for me to push these responsibilities further into the future.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started the next year further behind with less momentum, having to catch up as opposed to what could have been the start of a fantastic year with lots of momentum engaging in the next thing.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that makes sense.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So my unconscious decision to allow the chaos or disorganization of the holidays to let me avoid and escape my responsibilities and to hide them in the chaos led to me ending the year in a way that was not aligned with my values, not in a way that I was proud of, which hurt my self-image, and also led to a start of the next year that took two weeks, three weeks, a month or more to truly catch up and have any momentum whatsoever.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to know if you'd be willing to drop a comment.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: How did your last year end?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Did it end with all your goals and resolutions accomplished, all the open responsibilities that you had for the end of the year closed?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Or did you feel like you were in a race against a finish line that you never actually crossed?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And be honest with yourself, there may be ends of previous years with finish lines that you literally never crossed, because you did just hide it in the noise and then never came back to it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And because other people got distracted by the noise as well, they forgot what you had to actually be doing, or all the commitments or promises, or the exact promise that you made.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so they forgot about it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's just an open loop in the back of your head that makes you feel guilty because you know you had this commitment you were supposed to do, but you just never did it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you escaped unscathed.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Practically speaking, there weren't necessarily tangible consequences, or maybe there were, but emotionally speaking, self-image speaking, those things still linger in the back of your head.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: We act as if the new year is a clean slate.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is that there is no such thing as a clean slate.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: The slate of the new year is built on the foundation of the old ones.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if the previous year ends with a shitty foundation, with heavy misalignments between your values and your actions, or your actions in the man you want to be, that leads to building a dangerous and precarious house the following year on that foundation.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So if you let the noise and the overwhelm of the end of the year and the holidays to allow for you to avoid an escape from your responsibilities and your work, you are very likely allowing misalignment between your actions and your values, the person you actually want to be.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it has a high likelihood of leading to the end of a year that you look back on and feel guilty about or bad about or sad about and feel like you don't have momentum going into the next year.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I'm Flint from Eyeline.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: If this story resonated with you or this content resonates with you, I would appreciate if you would just share it with one person.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want more stories and resources and information on building a life of authenticity, confidence, and freedom, please follow and subscribe.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And feel free to reach out.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you send me a message, just let me know that you came from this video, and I'd be happy to help you out.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed that episode.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've been told your entire life that you're smart and you have potential, but you continue to see yourself not do what you said you would do again and again, and it's made you stop trusting in yourself or that you will ever achieve that potential, I want to help you.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Together, you and I will implement a core value-based system that will help you become decisive and focused.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to feel the relief from the weight on your shoulders because of the decreased noise in your head.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Strength each morning because you trust yourself to turn lost avoidant hours of your life into forward progress.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, when you no longer have to hide how you actually spend your time.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, pride in yourself when you close your eyes every night before you go to sleep.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: If that's of interest to you, click the first link in the show notes, fill out the 30 second application, and grab a time on my calendar.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Spots are obviously limited because of my time and availability, but if they fill up and you're a good fit, I'll make sure you get on the wait list.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to speaking with you.