The Head of Drama

[00:00:00] Ross: Hi there, and a very warm welcome to Season 5, Episode 54 of People Soup. It's Ross McIntosh here. Pea Soupers, this week it's a cup o soup, where I reflect upon our recent trip to Dublin, and how sometimes my mind can be less than helpful, and how quickly it can escalate an everyday issue.

[00:00:18] So let me set the scene. I was staying in a lovely hotel, Which I would thoroughly recommend, by the way. It was the Hyatt centric The Liberties in Dublin. Very handy for the Guinness Storehouse, where I was working for two days. So, on the morning of the first workshop, I got up early and went out for a quick walk before breakfast.

[00:00:37] Just to get the blood circulating and my mind up and running.

[00:00:40] I then went down for breakfast. Okay, as you ask, I had a ham and cheese omelette with some sourdough toast and a pot of decaffeinated coffee. I'm a boy who knows how to live. Incidentally, the night before once I'd arrived, I legged it to Sprout and Co.

[00:00:55] who do delicious salad bowls which I'd heartily recommend. And for a starter, I had a pint of Guinness Zero just to get my head in the game for the work ahead. pea soupers, I'm not a food blogger or reviewer, So let's get back to the point as we're reaching the dramatic denouement of my story. for those of you who are new to PeopleSoup, hi, hola, welcome to the community. for those who are more familiar, dedicated Peasoopers, welcome back. Thanks for joining us again. We're an award winning podcast where we share evidence based behavioral science in a way that's practical, accessible, and fun.

[00:01:44] Our mission is to unlock workplace potential with expert perspectives from contextual behavioral science.

[00:01:51] without further ado, let's get back to the dramatic

[00:01:55]

[00:01:55] Ross: denouement of the story. [00:02:00]

[00:02:00] So, I'd finished my breakfast and was back in my room packing my rucksack. I went to open the safe to get my stuff. The safe was in a deep drawer, and the lid of the safe opened like a piano keyboard or a chest freezer. So hopefully you get the idea. I entered the code for the safe with confidence, and shockingly, dear listener, it flashed ERR.

[00:02:24] Error.

[00:02:25] I was not too alarmed. So I carefully entered the number again, and it flashed ERR. Error again. So I began to feel a little panic rising. I could feel my mouth getting a bit dry and my mind beginning to race. So I thought, come on Macintosh, let's just enter that number once more.

[00:02:44] Expecting the beautiful mechanical whir of the sliding bolt. Alas, no. The err message once again. Now, before I tell you how my mind began to spin, you might be wondering what was in the safe. Now, those of you who've heard me talk about my anxious mind will not be surprised by what follows. In the safe was my passport, my laptop, my house keys, and my notes and notebook.

[00:03:13] Now, the first three items might seem acceptable for a regular human being, but my notes and my notebook? Pea soupers, I kind of feel like I'd be lost without them. And also, you never know when there might be the first case of industrial espionage in the training and business psychology community. So let's go back to my mind.

[00:03:33] My mind went into a tailspin. Oh. My. God. There's a malfunction with the safe. And I need my notes and laptop for the workshop I'll be running in just over one and a half hours. This is an absolute disaster. By now I was approaching full panic mode.

[00:03:50] What was my mind saying? My mind was saying, I need to call reception or go down to reception to explain. What if there's a queue at reception? Should I go down there or call? What if the person who [00:04:00] can unlock the safe can't come straight away? I was frozen. I'll need to see if I can get the slides sent from a colleague to the client, and perhaps use one of their laptops.

[00:04:09] Oh, it's going to be a shit show. The client will be less than impressed. We'll lose the contract. My name will be mud. I'll never work again. We'll be destitute. Now folks, might sound like an exaggeration, but this is literally the sequence my mind went through. In a few seconds. I'm sure you'll agree, not a very resourceful state to be in.

[00:04:31] And I got well and truly tangled up in the stuff that my mind had generated. So what happened? I caught my mind in flight and just took a few deep breaths. During this pause, I used a technique which helps me to recognise what my mind is up to, because sometimes our minds generate such compelling content that is so captivating that we can get tangled up in it, and it can then influence our actions and what we do next and what we notice.

[00:04:57] playful nickname I have for my mind is the Head of Drama. This helps me catch my mind in flight and realise I have a choice about what I do next. And notice that the Head of Drama is a playful nickname, is doing exactly what it was designed to do, to look out for danger and risk.

[00:05:16] And it had clearly escalated the malfunctioning safe to catastrophe in nanoseconds. So, instead of putting my shoes on to go down to reception, Now I'd managed to get off autopilot, breathe and pause, and call out my mind. I thought, let's just have another look at the safe. So I approached the safe and allowed myself to have a good look at the lid, really noticing what was in front of me.

[00:05:42] What did I notice, dear listener? I noticed that the lid wasn't resting in an exactly horizontal position, flush with the body of the safe. I prodded it, and there was some give, some flexibility in its movement.

[00:05:56] and at that moment, I realized that the safe was not [00:06:00] locked. It was in the closed position due to gravity, but not actually locked. So I could retrieve my notes on my laptop and arrive in good time to deliver the first workshop.

[00:06:11] Side note, folks, I thought I'd re lock the safe when I went out for my walk and breakfast, but clearly not. So let's have a bit of a recap, folks. We can get tangled up in the stuff our minds generate. If we can spot what our minds are up to and pause, then it can help to give our minds a playful nickname.

[00:06:29] Mine is the Head of Drama. By saying to myself, oh, there you are again, Head of Drama, I can then make a choice. A choice not to get tangled up in the dramatic consequences, but to decide what to do next that would serve me more effectively in the moment. In my case. That was actually noticing the details of the safe and the placement of the lid, allowing me to realize that it wasn't locked in the first place.

[00:06:54] Now, pea Soupers, thanks for listening. That's this cup soup in the bag. I'd really like your help in reaching more people with this behavioral science, so

[00:07:06] you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, we'd love you to do three things.

[00:07:10] Ross: Number one, share it with one other person. Number two, subscribe and give us a five star review, whatever platform you're on.

[00:07:17] Number three, share the heck out of it on the socials. This would all help us reach more people and make some noise with stuff that could be useful. We'd love to hear from you and you can get in touch at peoplesoup. pod at gmail. com. On X, formerly known as Twitter, we are at peoplesouppod. on the gram, known as insta, We are at People. Soup and on Facebook we are at PeopleSoupPod. You can also drop us a review or get in touch using a voice note on WhatsApp.

[00:07:45] Thanks to Andy Glenn for his spoon magic and Alex Engelberg for his vocals. Most of all, dear listener, thanks to you. Look after yourselves, peace supers, and bye for now.

[00:07:55] let's just enter that [00:08:00] number once more.

[00:08:01] Expecting the beautiful mechanical whir of the sliding bolt. Alas, no. The err message once again.