Mind of Snaps Podcast
Mind of Snaps Podcast
Mind of Snaps - Positivity Podcast | Ep. 54 - "Plan To Be Spontaneous"
Welcome to "Plan To Be Spontaneous" - the 54th Episode of the Mind of Snaps Positivity Podcast!
This is a special podcast series that is separate from the regular Mind of Snaps Podcast, with a new release (typically) posted every Monday for Patreon supporters!
It is my goal to create as much positive & encouraging content as I can during these intense, uncertain times we're faced with. 2020 was so much more than anyone expected it to be, and nobody should have to take it on alone. The only way I can continue to do so, is with your help.
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Hang in there, friends... we're all in this together.
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Jessy (Mind Of Snaps / SheSnaps)
www.MindofSnaps.com
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Hello, friends, Happy Monday. Yes, it is a Monday. And I am actually delivering a positivity podcast, right to your ears again. First off, thank you a ton for being so understanding and patient with me, as I continue to do my best to create a schedule that lasts. I'm trying, I had fully intended to get caught up with the podcasts over my little break I took, but then that didn't happen. So I figured I'd be able to do it in the week that followed. And then that didn't happen. And now here I am finally getting back on track. And seriously, just feeling so grateful for it. so grateful. I think one of the best things about this community is that you're all so genuinely understanding. When you tell me it's okay, you've got to take breaks sometimes to I can actually feel that you mean it. And like genuinely oh my gosh, that lack of pressure from all of you. It makes it so much easier to put less intense pressure on myself. So thank you again, times a million. I think it can be really hard on me, especially because I know, like I know, I'm capable of doing so much and producing so much. And sometimes that can be a really hard thing to balance out. When I had my corporate career and I was doing my other jobs plus the nonprofit, it was a bit easier. Like I'm doing air quotes right now easier will say, at the time, or at least to kind of felt that way. But the main difference is that at the time, I wasn't concerned about burnout. I thought that burnout was just how everyone felt all the time, I did not know how it felt to feel good. So balancing out my life was not even a thought at the time. Like genuinely, it just did not cross my mind. I was using my work to keep myself busy, and it was doing a decent enough job. And really, I was keeping myself busy so much because I hated myself still, I hated my life, I was miserable. And at the time, I still bought into the really messed up idea that at some point, I'd be able to make enough money that I would be able to find some form of happiness in that. Like I don't know, if I make enough than I can afford to go on X amount of vacations every year. And that'll help me to see the value in all this like grind grind grind work I do. Granted, I was also on Adderall at the time. So even on days when I was feeling really low energy. By the time I took my meds, I'd at least be able to feel alert and focused regardless, I had some some decent routines, like I was still big into fitness at the time. And at certain points in my career, I was very conscious of my dietary needs. But it was usually just based on losing weight. Not on like nourishing my body. You know, there were no mindful practices, no meditation, no stops to check in with my thoughts. I basically just bounced from task to task to task and thing to thing without ever stopping to ask myself if that was what I really wanted. So I have no no beef, absolutely no beef with Adderall itself. Please understand my fellow ADHD friends. I am not trying to say everyone can just switch over to a life free from Adderall or vyvanse or whatever. I've been off of Adderall for several years now. With one little attempt to go back to my old prescription probably a year or so ago. Question mark. I did about two weeks on it. before it became crazy clear to me that the side effects were not worth the extra focus it was helping me with and like, I took small doses. Man, I took a half of a ton. You know, I was taking a five milligram dose. So it wasn't like it was a ton of Adderall. I wasn't that was in my system to create those side effects. Even on the tiniest dose, I noticed how it impacted my mind in my life. So as of this moment, I have no intentions of ever going back on Adderall. But who knows what the future holds, right? Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out there. So you know, I'm not trying to shame or belittle anyone who uses any form of medication to help yourself. That is absolutely not my intention. We're all just doing the best we can with what we've got and sometimes medication is necessary. Since getting off of all of my own meds, I have learned through research and practice that focus truly is a skill that can be built though. It can be challenging and painfully frustrating at times. But learning how to concentrate well is something that I do fully believe we are capable of all of us. Lately, I've been doing some reading that really helped reinforce that belief. So I want to take a quick second to say, read the book, deep work by Cal Newport, super fascinating stuff about how to build focus and concentration over time. Really, really interesting. Some people may be better at it naturally than others, including, you know, some people may struggle with it more than others. This is coming from someone who also deals with ADHD type thinking. But like I said, Everyone, everyone has the potential to build this. I have a tendency to structure my life around the way that my brain works. To a certain extent, the rest of the structure includes a lot of work on building better habits, both physically and mentally. I know my brain likes to bounce around a lot. And I'm cool with that, in certain cases, like, I'm typically reading three to five books at a time, because I'm committed to a daily reading habit. But I also know if I try to force myself to stick to just one book till it's finished, I may start to procrastinate or avoid it. Maybe someday, I'll work on that and focus up on just one book at a time. But for now, this works for me, and it keeps me feeling excited to read. I did my best to create daily and weekly routines that allowed me ample time to work and to take breaks. But as you probably figured out by the radio silence over the past couple of weeks, at least on Patreon, the most recent schedule didn't quite work out. There were some some days where it felt like things were flowing so well. But after noticing myself craving days off, and just how much that messed up my normal routines, I realized something had to change. I had told myself that having only Sundays off of work was enough. But the thing is, I still worked Sundays, I just didn't have any kind of structure to it. So I ended up spending what felt like too much of my Sundays, dreading having to buckle down and get work done. And the rest of the time multitasking. I would also bounce between tasks a lot like checking email while cooking, or trying to catch up on other work related things on my computer while scrolling on social media or watching TV. What I really don't know how many different times I'll have to learn that multitasking is a lie before it fully sticks. But hopefully this is the one we're claiming it. This is the one. Maybe by repeating it to you all right now it'll make it easier to multitask multitasking is a lie. After finally taking a break and deciding to stick to just one thing at a time, it became glaringly obvious that the experience changes drastically and feels much nicer. Our brains do not multitask, we think we're good at it. But there are studies that show we are not good at assessing our own skills in this particular area. People who tend to think that they're the best at multitasking, tend to actually be less productive than they believe they are. Partially because the mental timing they have for their tasks is usually an accurate meaning you think you know how long it takes you to get something done. But you're probably wrong. Because you've never sat and just done that one thing. Our brains are not doing multiple things at once. They're switching between tasks rapidly and using your energy to do it. Not only that, but it takes longer to refocus on whatever you are working on. Because your brain is still trailing and trying to come back from whatever other thing you did. Listen, I'm not going to spend more of this podcast telling you that multitasking is bullshit, do some more research, I can point you to some great books or just try to do one thing at a time for a while and see how it feels to you. Anyway, going back to what got me on this tangent in the first place. I burned out. I see it now more clearly than I did at the time. But I burned out a bit. I thought I had planned everything to the point where I could manage working seven days a week. But the way in which I was doing it was ineffective. And it led me feeling like I never got a break even though I did my best to plan them in. Looking back I can see that part of the reason my breaks didn't feel restful is because I didn't quite give my brain permission to let go of work completely at any point. Any point, I was always thinking about work or doing some kind of work pretty much unless I was meditating. And realistically, even then, so many of the thoughts that would pull me away during my meditations, were work related thoughts. Now part of this is fucking rad, right? Like, I love what I do so much, that I genuinely struggle to stop thinking about it. I enjoy it, I want to help and it's become the central focus of my life. What I completely forgot, though, is that even though I love what I do, I still have to stop fucking doing it sometimes, like, actually stop, not multitask, not keep a tab open to email or discord or whatever. But actually tell my brain work day over and refocus myself on being present in my own life. I used Do Not Disturb mode for the first time in a long time during my break, and Holy shit, What a strange but awesome feeling. Taking that break last weekend into Tuesday, was so incredibly necessary. And it made me realize the schedule has got to change. Again, I'm working on a lot of things at once. And if I don't get smarter with my time, I'll just fucking burn out again, not going to do it. I really don't want to let anyone in this community down. And I think that's one of my greatest fears when it comes to burnout is that someone is going to need me on a day where I'm not able to be there fully, I won't be present enough or I won't have done enough to help. So I've decided From now on, on Sundays, I will only work on one thing. That's it. And that is the positivity podcast that you are listening to right now. The rest of the day will be spent fully disconnected, fully present, or you know as much as I can be. And I will allow myself to just take an actual break. Maybe I'll go to the pool. Some days, maybe I'll read some extra chapters in one of my books. Maybe I'll spend the day cooking and cleaning, maybe we'll go for a hike who knows. Life is thrilling anything could happen. If I'm not in the process of writing, or recording a positivity podcast, I will be done to the world, or at least to the social media world. Taking this break has really helped me to see that I've been lacking in the freeing feeling of having room for spontaneity, again. I love having good routines and schedules, because typically they allow me to have breaks easier and to shuffle things around so I can have guilt free time off. But I didn't see just how much I was missing out on with that time off until I took that break and went full disconnect. not spending time with email discord, or social media on my phone was so freeing, not feeling like I had a deadline to meet or that I had anything to do by any specific time was also freeing. Yesterday, I didn't set an alarm to wake up. I just got up when it felt right. Back in wild, right. I went and made coffee. I grabbed my journal and my book and I went out on the balcony. I sat and read for longer than I usually allow myself. And when it got too hot because I was sitting in a direct beam of sunlight from the rising sun outside. I went back inside and I kept reading What a fucking wild woman right? A real fucking rebel. When I was done with that, I just sat on the bed for a bit and I stared at the ceiling until I decided what I wanted to do next. Turns out what I wanted to do next, like genuinely wanted to do next was clean. So I started cleaning. Somewhere around 11am I began and I think I stopped cleaning somewhere around 330 I listened to some bomb music. I talked to my sister a little bit at one point and just cleaned and organized things it felt fucking great. my pantry is entirely reorganized. My desk is clear the kitchen is clean and I am fuckin thrilled about it. When I was done cleaning, I did the same thing. I sat for a bit and I just thought, What do I want to do next? If anything, maybe I just want to stay sitting who knows. During all this time, I didn't even peek at my social media channels once I stayed the fuck away and I am so glad for that. After the cleaning break, I realized I was feeling good. I was ready to get this podcast knocked out. So I sat down at my freshly cleaned desk and I started writing and bruh the words just flow That is what I love about these casts, usually, usually the words flow. The last two weeks, I was feeling effectively blocked. And now I can see very clearly why I felt that way. My time was not well structured, my goals were not clearly defined. And I wasn't taking actual breaks, I was just pretending I was, it was only a matter of time where I was going to feel before I was going to feel backed up by all of this shit that I had not been paying attention to. So my recommendation for all of you, in the days and weeks ahead, is to make plans to take regular breaks. Now this part I know is not new. I've been talking about time blocking and planning for your breaks, I think for a while. But not only that, don't just make plans to take regular breaks. But make regular breaks, where you actually stop working or doing whatever thing usually takes up all of your time. And during that time, stop multitasking, because we know it's a lie. And allow yourself to relax a little, allow yourself days, or even moments where you're just willing to see where things go. See where your mind takes you. My recent break really helped me clarify a lot of important things in my life. I think if I hadn't burned out, I would have kept going on that same path, feeling like I was doing so efficiently. But never actually seeing the truth. I'm very grateful to see that more clearly now. And I'm so insanely grateful that you are all so understanding of my journey that I can I can take time so unexpectedly and not feel like I'll be losing the respect or the support of this community. I want you to feel the way I feel now. I want you to feel clear, focused and ready for whatever comes next. I want you to be able to live a life where you can be truly spontaneous, and live the life you want to live in each moment. In order for you to do that, in order for you to have that you got to plan ahead. I know that might sound weird and contradictory. But I think over time, you'll understand what I mean more deeply. Yesterday, I gave myself permission to do nothing. And in my moments of doing nothing. I decided on a whim what would come next. I had no intentions of completely reorganizing my pantry and my cabinets in the kitchen yesterday. But Holy Fuck, I'm so glad I did. My friends, do what you can to plan ahead. Give yourself permission to actually take regular breaks. And you'll find your ability to experience more spontaneity without stress will improve. You got this. Also, as a final side note, I really liked the book I read over my break called the one thing, so I super recommend it. Read the one thing, follow that book up with deep work. It was the perfect combo for me for reminding me that I needed more clarity and focus in my life, and that my habits were not supporting it. So I think you'll like both of those books too. Anyway, thank you for listening. Thank you for all the support. keep taking good care of yourself and others. Quit multitasking your lives away. Take regular breaks, and actually surrender into those breaks. You deserve it. You do much love my friends. Get out there. Manifest dope shit.