#413 Drains. Not the fried chicken grease!

Ever notice how a simple drain tells the truth about your life? When the flow is clean, everything moves. When grease builds up—negativity, noise, cheap dopamine—things slow, clog, and overflow. We take this everyday object and use it as a sharp tool for self-leadership, exploring how to filter inputs, protect your attention, and design routines that keep your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual systems clear.

I walk through why not every idea, voice, or emotion deserves access to your leadership pipeline, and how “grease” often shows up as habits that feel good now but cost you later: late-night streaming, endless hot takes, sugary rewards, and overbooked calendars. You’ll hear a simple drain test to decide what gets in: does this keep me clear and moving, or does it stick and slow me down? From there, we map practical maintenance—morning boundaries, sleep-first planning, focused reading over scrolling, hydration and movement as daily pipe-cleaners, and quiet time that lets sediment settle so clarity can surface.

For leaders, we zoom out to the organization’s pipes: setting filters for signal vs. noise, preventing decision sludge, and turning venting into experiments. The goal isn’t to control every drop—it’s to keep channels open so people, ideas, and work move with purpose. By the end, you’ll have a clean-flow framework you can use to protect your energy, improve decisions, and grow without friction. If this sparks a shift in how you think about inputs and boundaries, share it with a friend, subscribe for more growth prompts, and leave a quick review so others can find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and The Drain Metaphor
• 0:10 Not Everything Belongs in the System
• 0:36 Grease, Negativity, and Clogs
• 1:03 Habits That Keep Flow Clean
• 1:45 Invitation to Share Insights

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Growth Instigators Hotline. I'm Aaron Havens, your host and growth coach. This is message 413. This week we are talking about drains, an everyday normal object that we can assign deeper meaning to, something that can grab our attention and represents something beyond. What are some lessons we can glean from drains? Thank you, Todd from Vermont. Yes, I agree with you. Not everything belongs down the drain. Leaders must guard what flows through their systems. Not every idea, voice, or emotion belongs in your leadership pipeline. Have you ever poured grease or oil down your drains? Yeah. How did that turn out for you? Clogged soon after, huh? Yeah, me too. Yet we let grease and oil into our lives. Not just the yummy stuff we fry chicken in. Just that. We let the ugly stuff in, the thoughts, the influences, the worldviews, the voices. Why do we pour negativity into our drains? Nope, not today. Let's keep our drains flowing freely. That happens by waking up and working your success plan. Could you drink a huge margarita for lunch and follow it up with some bourbon? Yeah, well, of course. Should you? Well, I guess it's kind of up to you, I guess. Should you consume hours of streaming video until the wee hours of the morning? Well, does that clog the drain? My friends, what keeps our dreams optimally draining? What keeps you healthy mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, those are the things we should allow into our systems. Everything else? Yeah, should go straight to the trash. That, my friend, is how a common everyday object can instigate growth. I would like to hear some more of your observations. What growth lessons can you apply to drains? For those of you calling the Growth Instigators Hotline, I'd love to hear your thoughts after the beep. For those of you listening in on a podcast, visit growth instigators.com and send me your thoughts. Let's never see drains the same.