A Mason's Work

[00:00] Hey, welcome back to another episode.
[00:02] This week we're going to be talking about the application of the level.
[00:08] It's interesting how often we tend to get very messed up when it comes to things like
[00:16] time.
[00:19] Let me give you a quick example of how you might be doing this, you know, to yourself.
[00:27] So, uh, imagine you're walking in your house apartment, what have you, and you keep walking
[00:38] pie, that pile of documents and bric-a-brac and stuff sitting on the table that future
[00:49] you one day is going to figure out, going to spend the time, sort it out.
[00:57] Or, one day, future you is going to have all of the energy and enthusiasm you're going
[01:06] to need to exercise and eat by.
[01:13] Or, future you is going to have the ability or capacity to have that tough conversation.
[01:22] When we look at the level and how we use it, more often than not, we have a misappropriation
[01:32] of the person who's going to be able to solve some of these problems.
[01:39] And, to be fair, the past version of you also made the same kind of mistake, setting you
[01:49] up to not be successful, to not be able to execute on the promises that they thought one
[01:57] day you'd be able to handle.
[01:59] Now, this isn't about using the level to beat yourself up, so I want to be clear.
[02:04] This is about understanding that when we have irrational expectations about the capacities
[02:12] of our past self or our future self, we lose the opportunity to really meaningfully task
[02:18] that version of yourself with the right scope of work.
[02:22] If the pile keeps getting bigger and you don't work to set up how you're going to solve that
[02:31] problem, future use load increases.
[02:35] And what happens here every day that passes every chance that you miss to solve that problem,
[02:42] you're just increasing the debt.
[02:46] In computer technology, we call this a tech debt, where you don't acknowledge some of the
[02:51] limitations of the existing system, and in the process, compound the impact on the future
[02:57] system.
[02:59] When you do this to yourself, it has an emotional weight, it has an energy cost, and it generally
[03:07] doesn't bode well for your long-term mental health.
[03:10] So, this week, we're going to talk about how some of these little quick things, these decisions
[03:16] that we make on the fly seem innocuous at the time, start you down a path that is either
[03:24] unsustainable or really just doesn't give future you enough wiggle room, enough of the trowel,
[03:35] enough kindness and care, enough of the things it's going to need to solve the problem.
[03:41] And how some of that comes from the past version of you and what you can do to heal some of
[03:47] that as well.
[03:49] There's a lot of work here, there's a lot of little nuanced stuff, but this is all relatively
[03:55] kind of high-level easy-ish mind hacks that you can take back to your everyday life.
[04:01] So, how do we solve the pile problem?
[04:04] Let's start with the easy thing, okay?
[04:08] Every time you walk by, take one item out of the pile.
[04:14] That's it.
[04:17] You're not setting up this whole timeline where you've carved out four hours to deal with the pile.
[04:26] Just one thing when you walk by.
[04:30] This kind of microscopic behavior change or this little commitment to the versions of yourself
[04:37] starts you down a path to build resiliency and capacity.
[04:41] When we do this well and do it correctly, you are not adding a meaningful heavy load
[04:48] or creating this opportunity to try and put out all of the fires all at once.
[04:53] What you're doing is micro swings of that gavel to take these little bits off of tomorrow use pile of work.
[05:04] Doesn't take much.
[05:06] It's not that big of a deal.
[05:08] Stop trying to turn it into one or creating this huge debt of time that has to be paid
[05:17] by the future version of yourself.
[05:20] We'll get into more of these throughout the week.
[05:21] Thank you.
[05:22] As an Темrà
[05:23] The End