The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - God and Gantt Charts - Expecting Trials in Life and Rewriting our Personal and Professional Scripts | KEV Talks #23

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

Great sharing wise words from Father Mike of the @hallowap on dealing with Temptation in life. While Father Mike focused on how we approach temptation in our personal lives, I also took the message to reinforce how we can look at fitness in our professional lives.Father Mike's guidance:Expect the trialEliminate the optionRewrite the scriptRefer to scriptureLearn more about the Hallow App at https://hallow.com/

Hey everybody, Kevin Pinnell, host of the KevTalks podcast. Kind of trying something different today and kind of a God and Gantt charts theme. So I am a project manager, senior project manager in healthcare IT, and I am on a journey kind of renewing faith, exploring spirituality in all different aspects. I appreciate you being here on the journey with me. And so what I wanted to share were some sentiments from Father Mike that I got this past Sunday from the Halo app. I'm participating in the Lent 40 challenge.

For me, I gave up alcohol and trying to really cut back on processed food significantly, anything kind of in a package, right, that's not fresh. And really focused on my health that way. But the speech that we had, the sermon, the wisdom that was shared from Father Mike on the Halo app this past Sunday had to do with temptation. And that can come in all forms, right? In different vices, things that you watch or you ingest or you do or you don't do. And professionally, that can come with, do I make the easy choice? Do I not do this paperwork, this administrative stuff because I just like to deliver? It's a tough challenge, right? But I really appreciated Father Mike's guidance on temptation and dealing with it because it also has to do, and I'm, you know, as part of the Penelope Fitness Club on YouTube that I host, and I exercise every day at

some level, weights, jujitsu, yoga, something. I highly recommend that for everybody, is how can we relate this to physical fitness, to getting better, to taking that first step? I'm going to jump into what Father Mike shared, what it has to do with dealing with and addressing temptation. The first thing that he says is expect the trial. Expect there's going to be temptation. Nobody's perfect. Not even as he mentions Jesus. He was tempted, but he expected the trial.

For us, expect that life's going to be hard. Someone's not going to be nice tempted, right? But he expected the trial. And for us, expect that life's going to be hard. Someone's not going to be nice to you when you go out in the world. You're going to be tired because you didn't sleep one night. It's just going to happen. So don't be so surprised when you have a trial. Now, that doesn't mean if you get bad medical news for you, a family member, that you shouldn't be surprised and upset and things. But generally looking forward in life that we should expect the trial. And for folks that are getting into, maybe you've fallen off your New Year's resolution for fitness, or maybe you're just decide, hey, it's, you know, end of February, I'm going to get into it. Just know that workouts are hard, right? They're going to be hard when you show up. They're going to be hard when you start. For projects, it's going to be hard to get folks together sometimes

to get them to talk to each other for you to be able to talk to people. Just expect it. Expect it and accept it and work through it. And how can we work through that is we can eliminate the option. This is the second thing that Father Mike talks about. And what that means is if you're tempted back to the temptation, kind of the pure part of the speech as far as focused on temptation, if you're drinking too much, then don't have alcohol in your house. If you're watching horror movies that are kind of not letting you sleep well, don't watch those anymore, right? Don't stream, don't have the TV on. If you're looking to exercise, but you're like, oh, I can't because I can't go to the gym, I don't have time. Well, go to your living room. There's no excuse. Your living room is right there, your space, your bedroom, your floor.

You can do some air squats and push-ups. You can go for a walk. If you have problems going for a walk, walk in place. Lift your legs and sit on the chair. There are ways to move to eliminate the excuse or eliminate the option not to exercise. For project management, we can eliminate options by managing risks, by responding to issues. But if we can eliminate options by managing risks, by responding to issues. But if we're proactive in managing those risks, we eliminate the option of not succeeding or greatly mitigate it by always knowing this is going to be hard. Let's look at all these risks and let's mitigate them or accept them or redirect them or whatever we're going to do with them, but eliminate that option. So we're expecting trials. We're eliminating options that make us not make the best choice, whether it's personally

or professionally. And the third thing is rewrite the script. Don't accept it just because it's happening. Don't accept that, oh, well, I made this poor choice and this temptation's there and it's just the way it is. It's not, right? One of, I'm rereading again, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and I am just astounded. Every page I read of a man who lost his whole family, his life

in a concentration camp and multiple concentration camps, as did millions of others, but he didn't give up hope. He had his why, and so he figured out his how along the way, and he rewrote his script. He shared his experience. He shared his logotherapy, it's called, his type of therapy with the rest of us that has made a huge difference and impact. It's almost every page of that is quotable from the standpoint that it's impactful. So he rewrote his script. We can rewrite our script.

We can rephrase how we think about our day, how we think about how we're going to show up at work. And that's hard sometimes. I've been burnt out and been like, I do not want to do this today. I don't want to do this cold shower, this workout, jujitsu, this administrative work, go to kids soccer, whatever it is. But we have to rewrite the script sometimes and say, you know what? That's part of the life. I expected this trial.

I'm eliminating the option by saying I commit to do this. I have to take them. And I'm going to rewrite the script by going. So expect the trial, eliminate the option, rewrite the script, and then refer to scripture. And this is right for not for everyone. So if you're not a religious, so to speak, person or someone of faith, of some sort of faith, then maybe your scripture is something inspiring like man's search for meaning or philosophy or something like that, right? But refer to something that's positive, positive affirmations, mindfulness, take a break, just like I talked to Kim Kogar, right? Be mindful, take that break during the day, you know, 10 minutes, five minutes and make

a difference. Refer to something, you know, literally you can read scripture or you can, you know, learn from others that have gone through what you're going through or that you, you know, are stuck in. But I thought this was a great, particularly focused on kind of the fitness space, the inspiration face, but it also applies to work, right? And then certainly personally. So if you have temptations that are keeping you from being your best self, whether it's mentally, physically, spiritually, and and then professionally expect that there's going to be trial eliminate the options to not do well or to you know to succeed and rewrite your script it's never too late to rewrite your script there's been plenty of people that have been successful

that have changed their lives from a bad course to a good one later in life. And then refer to scripture or refer to something that inspires you. Thank you all for inspiring me to keep the podcast going, for the great guests that I've had, for the folks that seem to be picking up and listening and subscribing and leave those reviews on Apple Podcasts. Help this show grow. I really want to keep providing resources for everyone, in particular my military and public safety brothers and sisters and other folks I've worked with in technology and healthcare and just wellness in general. So thank you all so much. Go to kevtalkspod.com. Plenty of resources there, searchable, look for the topics. If there's a topic I haven't covered or a guest I haven't had and you want to have them on, there's a be on the

podcast link there. There's a let's talk link. And so fill or a guest I haven't had and you want to have them on, there's a Be On The Podcast link there. There's a Let's Talk link. And so fill that out for you, for someone that you know. Thanks so much. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram at PenelkeG. And we have a Facebook page that's KevTalks Podcasts. So remember, everybody, have a plan so you and your teams are headed in the right direction. Stay informed with facts, not fear or rumors, and get involved so you can make a difference,

lead those teams, and help yourself and the world. Godspeed.