Latest / The iAlign Podcast with Flint Mitchell / iAlign #56 - You Feel Behind Because Your Tabs Are Open

Transcript

iAlign #56 - You Feel Behind Because Your Tabs Are Open · 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: Failed or unfinished project number 477.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I started this basically failed blog in university.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was called Trying to Tech.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I never made it past page or post number four, I think.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it just became one more tab, one more open loop, one more project to add onto the pile that made me feel behind every single day.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is Flint Mitchell from Ioline.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: I went from stagnation scrolling, overthinking, and feeling behind to a life of clear, consistent, confident action and freedom.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: This blog was supposed to be about technical topics that I was learning at the end of university.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was building cool things like an electroencephalograph reads brain waves or an electrocardiogram reads heart waves, or just learning small technical-related subjects associated with my passions, which at the time was a combination of electrical engineering and human biology, the central nervous system, the brain, stuff like that.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: And these are subjects that I'm still incredibly fascinated by and continue to work in in some form or fashion, though the arc around the journey is a little bit winding right now.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, this project, as you probably all too well know at this point in the story, became just another open MOOC, just another tab open next to the hundreds of other tabs that were on my computer, or the articles that I wanted to save for later on different topics, projects I wanted to build, things I wanted to dive into, but obviously never did.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the main problem with this pattern is not just that it's kind of disappointing to start things and not finish them.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: The reality is when you continue to start many projects and not finish them, and then they become in parallel.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think I think the open tab on your computer or the unclosed tab on your computer is actually a good parallel or example, is the more of these tabs that open on your computer, the less space there is, the less memory there is on your computer for new tabs to open and get handled.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, your computer or your central nervous system, your brain, can only handle so many things at the same time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It can only put so many things into its memory at the same time.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you continue to start projects, and a project can be anything.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: A project can be books that you started reading that you only finished a couple pages of, it could be articles you want to save for later on your computer, it could be texts that you want to send, emails that you want to send.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Can't believe I found Pachamama for 50% off here.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: It must be something wrong with it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Any of these small little loops count, and if you add too many of them up, what ends up happening is that you get so many of them that accumulate over the course of a year, they start to just become this unseen weight vest that you're wearing all the time.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would blink after a year or multiple years of starting so many projects like this blog and not finishing them, and all of a sudden I would feel like I had a million things that I had to do at any given time, but I wasn't doing any of them.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it became a self-image thing.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not only was I behind, I felt behind, and then I started to feel like the type of person that could never not be behind.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yet the reality is that the vast majority of these open loops, like this blog, or many of the books you start to read, or many of the people that you feel like you have to reach out to, it's completely optional.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The reality was that each of these millions of open loops were just self-induced stress that was preventing me from one, feeling good about myself, two, getting ahead, and three, knowing what I actually had to be doing.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you prioritize everything, then you prioritize nothing.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because a priority inherently means that is an outlier of energy expenditure.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you expend all your energy on everything, then there's no outliers and therefore you don't prioritize anything.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: And at this point of the year, around September, is where these open loops start to accumulate to a point where they start to feel really heavy, especially if you never truly got rid of them from previous years.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But going into the end of the year when there's so much spontaneous stress or chaos and travel, buying gifts, random, spontaneous, intense emotions that show up for whatever reason, they all compound on top of each other, and you end up feeling more stressed than you otherwise would have if you hadn't had accumulated this massive amount of baggage of unnecessary and optional commitments that are creating all this self-induced stress on top of everything else going on in your life.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because here's the reality: you don't feel behind because you're doing too little.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: You feel behind because every abandoned project becomes another tab, another open loop.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And most of those loops are optional to begin with and completely unnecessary.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not bad to start new things, but it is bad if you don't clear them before the new year.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, your new year's resolutions just get buried with the old ones.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, I'm Flint from Eyeline.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Please follow and subscribe for more stories and resources on building a life of authenticity, confidence, and freedom.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Cheers.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you enjoyed that episode.
• 5:34
  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.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Together, you and I will implement a core value-based system that will help you become decisive and focused.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to feel the relief from the weight on your shoulders because of the decreased noise in your head.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Strength each morning because you trust yourself to turn lost, avoidant hours of your life into forward progress.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Peace, when you no longer have to hide how you actually spend your time.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, pride in yourself when you close your eyes every night before you go to sleep.
• 6:19
  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.
• 6:26
  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.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to speaking with you.