#131 - How to Overcome Overwhelm with Mitch Hankins

In this episode of the Morning Upgrade podcast I talk with Mitch Hankins about his morning routine, navigating through a career change, cold plunge benefits, dealing with overwhelm and more.

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Announcer  

Welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote, where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Ryan

Hey, Mitch, welcome to the Morning Upgrade podcast. How's your day going?

Mitch  

Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here. It's great. So far. I got through Well, my morning routine was great this morning, and I have had a good day so far because of it. So no complaints here a lot, you

Ryan  

know, well, yeah, it's. It's been a great day so far. We'll see where the night takes us. I got some kid's stuff like for my kids to parties and stuff like that. But the day itself has been going well, productive, and productive makes me happy. So let's, yeah, I know, it's like an addiction for me almost. But let's kick this off with you telling my audience of mourning upgraders who you are and what you do for a living, and then give us something you are grateful for right now.

Mitch  

Yeah, I would love to. So my name is Miss Jenkins, I want to race in the Netherlands and lived there for 20 years until I enlisted in the US Air Force and moved around the US a good bit. And while I was in the Air Force, as an air traffic controller, I started taking computer science classes. And then once I discharged, I continued kind of education by becoming like a self-taught coder, you know, really built a career around engineering, software engineering, and so a lot of freedom there, but kind of wanted to do more. So, you know, a couple of years ago, I made the pivot into becoming a performance coach, speaker, and writer. And what I do now is especially a lot of writing. People can see that on my blog, I'm also in the process of writing a book. So that's what I would say, and I'm up to right now. And what I am most grateful for is really the payoff of all the curiosity, all the work I've done on myself in the sense of the community that has manifested around me. As I alluded to, I've moved around a lot, I never really had a good community around me close connection people really cared about. And now that's completely different. So I'm just grateful for the people I have around me and the experiences I get to share with them. Excellent. You're in San Diego, right? Yeah, yes, I'm in San Diego. It's like there's never a bad day in San Diego weather-wise, at least, I've never experienced one.

Mitch  

There is, even if there is, then you're just more grateful for the next one. You know, it's like I was cloudy yesterday. But today, it's nice to get in. So I'll take it

Ryan  

like that. My mindset trick there. So I'm just curious, what motivated you to go from Kotor to coach? I'm just curious.

Mitch  

No, I love that question. It you know, it's meaningful, for sure. Because I really had gone into, or actually, I'd gotten would have wanted out of becoming a coder. And it turned out to be what I didn't want, you know, because I thought, hey, if I become a coder, if I become a programmer, I can be completely on my own, I don't have to talk to anyone all day, I can work from home, I don't have to interact with anyone don't have to sit in traffic. But then I got there. And I had set all these goals, you know, around financial freedom and income and net worth. And as I was getting closer and closer to achieving those goals, I just still felt empty. And then I realized, you know, then I started really doing a lot of research on myself going to therapy, getting curious, journaling. And then, I discovered that that emptiness was just loneliness and a lack of community around me. So I spent so much time and effort and money on books, courses, retreats, and all these different things. And then I thought, you know, looking around me, there are so many people with these issues, not just engineers, but there are so many people that are incredibly well developed, like professionally, and that have kind of lacked in the area of the community. And so I thought, well, maybe all those years it took me to figure that out, I can kind of compress that. And I can just tell people, here's what I did. You know, here's what works for me. Here's how I go about it. And just kind of be an inspiration for people to make that journey. And, you know, writing and speaking and coaching really seemed like the best way for me to do that. How did you get through the isolation with the pandemic, at the time, I still had quite a few financial goals, and I would say that I was working towards I spent a lot of time reading books on real estate and analyzing properties and getting, you know, networking with real estate professionals. And to be entirely honest with you, I still isolated myself a lot during the pandemic. You know, people were scared. And I felt that even when people were meeting up, it was very hard to get any kind of meaningful thing going because, you know, we didn't know how you have to be inside. You have to be outside. And I was in California at the time, and everything was shut down. So for me, the pandemic was pretty tough. And I think a big part of why I started this journey, especially as a software engineer, is because I would be at home all day doing my job working remotely. And then I wouldn't go do anything in the evening or on the weekends because everything was closed.

Ryan  

Yeah, my Tina Ballantine, we do a lot of video calls. So that helps. It's not like it's not obviously like the real face-to-face kind of thing. But that's when I start actually started the morning upgrade during that time. I had my work, too, of course, but then I had morning upgrade, which was a whole new project and that kind of kept my mind off things. So That's talking about the pandemic a lot. But it just made me think of it because you were talking about you felt alone being the code being a coder. And little to no global pandemic was on its way. Here. And so.

Mitch

Yes, yeah. So

Ryan  

you mentioned that you've got a, I think you use the word holy morning routine, only to so I gotta hear this, what are your mornings look like?

Mitch  

To me, I think they're pretty interesting. And people definitely talk to me about them a lot. Because, you know, I tend to post them on Instagram because I kind of want to show people like, Hey, I'm walking the walk. But what I do is I wake up at 6 am, then I take an ice bath, I have a nice little chest freezer in the yard that's set to 47 degrees. So I sit in that water for, like, three to five minutes. And it's the last thing I want to do in the morning. That's why I do it first. And then, after that, I go and sit on my deck so that I can go watch the sunrise, and I meditate. Typically, lately, I've been doing more energy centers and meditation, but I just like any kind of meditation, just really getting connected with, you know, that peace and quiet. And so I can take that into the day. And then, after about 15 minutes of meditation, I journal where I have like various prompts about what my goals are for the day and what my sleep statistics work, I wear a sleep tracker and what my fears are even because I've discovered if I kind of dig into my fears, it gives me a lot of clarity about where I want to go in life. And then I read some inspirational books. So typically something where the chapters are a little shorter, like that book, The admiral wrote, like, why to make your bed or, or something similar to that. I like the Toltec wisdom books, then I exercise like either walking around the block with the dogs or doing yoga. And that whole routine typically takes me about an hour, hour and a half, then I'm ready to jump into work.

Ryan  

Love it. The first one that comes to mind, what's your what's the best book you've ever read? I would say,

Mitch  

thinking Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill. And, as with anything great, there are pros and cons to it, where it's an older book, but it's really I feel like every modern nonfiction book stems, you know, has roots in that book one way or the other. And the reason why I say it's one of my favorite books is that it put this idea in my head that the soft subconscious is like a radio transmitter and receiver, which I hadn't really thought about it that way before. But when we have certain behaviors and have certain thoughts about ourselves, I mean, that affects everything, even our genetic expression, you know, it's referred to as epigenetic or epigenetics, where the thoughts we have to determine how our genes express themselves, and thus how our DNA is affected. And it's the same with our subconscious, like the way we live our days, the things we tell ourselves, and the people we surround ourselves with. They all make it into that subconscious. And the subconscious drives the emotional brain, which in terms drives the logical brain. So for me, that was just a huge revelation of oh, I can really program my mind the same way I can program computers. And yeah, another book that kind of comes to mind is the morning routine by Hal Elrod, which I'm sure you've heard about. Yeah, of course,

Ryan  

that started me down this whole path. I have my own routine I do now, but that was really what started it. Have you? Have you read Napoleon Hill's book called Outwitting the Devil? I have. And I loved it about the drift, that the becoming not becoming a drifter. And yeah, it was really interesting. I listen to the audio and wear the hat. It's like an interview style where he's interviewing the devil. And that was a very unique way. And the fact that it was written like 100 years ago blows my mind because so relevant still today.

Mitch  

That's I have the exact same experience. I can even remember where I read this book, I remember what the yard looked like, I remember what the day looked like the clouds looked like, I just remember that book made such an impression on me, especially because of the interview style, as you said, and the fact that it was written 100 years ago, but I felt like I was having a conversation with the man themselves. So I know exactly what you mean.

Ryan  

Yeah, actually recapped the book on my blog, and I have to read it. I want to read it again, though. It's really I've shared it with a bunch of people. I shared it in my email newsletter for Ballantine and the morning upgrade. And so, you know, when you get a book like that, that you think could change lives. You got to share it. And so I figured you'd heard of it. And absolutely, already seven degrees. What does that feel like? I've been on the Jersey Shore when it was like literally the mid-50s. And that was quite painful. So what does 47 feel like?

Mitch  

It's a shock at first, but that's the Yeah, that's definitely the idea. I feel like for a cold lunch where the whole idea is like put your body in like a mini trauma and then breathe through it so you can learn to trust it and you can tell your brain, Hey, it's okay. And I have had some exposure to it because I used to live on the cliffs here in San Diego, and I would go and surf in the ocean be like the high 50s mid-50s And I like to go without a wetsuit. I didn't do that too often, but I'd already kind of been used to cold water and so I started at around 55 to

Ryan

torture Okay, that's good.

Mitch  

Yeah, just, you know, like, you just take small steps and then you know, all of a sudden you can get tortured a whole lot and then you start enjoying it.

Ryan  

I think I cut you off, but you're I think you're talking about yeah, there's the surfing and without, without a wetsuit. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. I was just curious. I've had again, I went, I mentioned that actually a

Mitch  

cold plunge kind of thing. Yeah, it's amazing. You know, it's like taking 10 shots of espresso. Because when you're out like your headache is gone, you have mental clarity, you know, all your paints are gone. And it's, you know, I started at like, 56 degrees or so. And I just turned it down a degree every few weeks. And I mean, I want to go as low as like, maybe 4041 degrees, you know, in about a year from now and just keep building up the time I spent in there. Yeah, you know, you really get a lot of resistance from, and there's even research to show that it releases all these chemicals to your body that are diseased fighting. And it's just a very, I would say an, empowering thing. Because when I wake up and I close, open my eyes, and I think like, oh, no, I have to get in that damn freezer. You know, it's such a, it's such as discipline, but it's such a, I would say, Good feeling afterward. And you're like, I just did that. Like I, the frog. I can take anything today, like I already had the worst, you know?

Ryan  

Yeah, I think if I sat in 47-degree weather water for a minute, I think it's when I got out, I probably would pump out like 100 Jumping jacks, and 30 seconds, I'd be so so like, energized like his picture it?

Mitch

Yes. Yeah, that's usually what I do. So

Ryan  

you mentioned something. It's not one of the questions I typically ask you had mentioned before we started recording that, you know, how we were talking? How was your day going on stuff? And you were saying how you were feeling overwhelmed about things today? And I'm just curious, I think, you know, we all feel overwhelmed and used on a daily basis, right, just to varying degrees. But how do you deal with overwhelm? I think that'd be helpful for my audience to hear, especially if you're a performance coach. How do you deal with overwhelm?

Mitch  

Yeah, I love that question. You know, at first, a few years ago, my answer would have been completely ignored. And just keep pushing, you know, suck it up. It'll go away. Just get whatever you want to get done. And now when I nominee answer would be now that I've learned a lot, it would be like overwhelms a signal. Like, it's just when you stub your toe, and your toe hurts, and you're not going to go run a marathon because your body's saying like, hey, this toe hurts, it needs to heal itself, some sending pain signals up your spine, overwhelms the same thing. It's your brain saying like, hey, something's going on. It doesn't mean that you've already been working on this for hours, but maybe other stuff happened in your personal life. And you just can't deal with this right now. So overwhelming. Take a step back and look at the big picture and get curious about why you're overwhelmed. Like, is everything okay? in personal life? Are you not enjoying the work you're doing? Like, what is causing that overwhelm, not just the last drop in the bucket, like, you know, the email you have to send or that pitch shift or right, or the meeting, you have to attend? Like, what is really causing the vast majority of that overwhelm? And then it's just really getting curious about finding solutions. Like, how can I find a solution where I can get my tasks done one step at a time without constantly running into like those sorts of roadblocks? So to summarize, my answer would really be like getting taking a break. And looking at the big picture and getting curious about cause and effect. I find that for me like journaling helps with going for a walk, meditating, and all those things that everyone knows about, but it actually does. It does work if you give it time. Yeah, or exercise, I mean, you know, when I say, like, take a step back and look at the big picture. The way you really do that by breaking those vicious thought cycles is by, Yeah, going for a walk are meditating. Because your brain gets to connect, you know, gets to connect in different ways when it's like doing other things in different areas of the brain are stimulated, and then it's almost like you have more of resources of a computer to work on a problem and doing things like exercising, really gets that connection going quickly because you're coordinating your body and also your nervous system is coordinating various things like pumping blood faster and oxygen through your body and breathing, and so it's a really good way to snap out of whatever you're currently experiencing and kind of get into a new place

Ryan  

besides exercise and morning routines. Are there any pillar habits that you or maybe your clients rely on that you can share with us?

Mitch  

Yeah, both, Absolutely. So you know, one of the pillar habits for sure is it's probably part of the morning routine, but waking up early, like get up but we you know, with the sunrise because that's definitely one of the way quickest ways to fix your sleep as well as just feeling productive. And any day don't wake up for the sunrise, I just don't feel right. Then diet, you know, personally for me, I'm, I have a keto diet because Everything in our society nowadays, it has been either, like put high fructose corn syrup in there or it's just you don't trust the ingredients and you know, spikes blood sugar. So really finding a diet that essentially, you know, there's 100 diets out there, but just finding one that works well for you. exercising daily, doing a cold plunge meditation, reading, and making sure you get to see friends doing fun stuff with friends and family and really disconnecting from all the productivity that we always want to be doing that I've discovered that's incredibly important. Like, you know, just like, you don't grow by exercising in the gym. You grow outside of the gym. And it's kind of similar with professional efforts, you know, you, you really have to take a step back and relax and do fun stuff with friends and family in order to come back stronger and get big results. So I would say those are really the habits that I would call pillars because I do those on a daily basis.

Ryan  

It's amazing as I go down this morning, upgrade journey and podcasts and speaking to people like you, and it's amazing how many, I mean, you think of like a business, and you have the typical business has a lot of strategies that can use to grow and improve, whether it's marketing or operations, to Team, etc. But you have the same number of strategies on the personal side to grow and improve yourself. And it's amazing. Like, as I talk to more people, just the different strategies they rely on. There's the obvious ones like journaling and gratitude practice and meditation, but then there's the ones that they use, like you'd never think of like, like the cold plunge, or red light therapy or grounding outside nature. So we have, like, you have your strategy for business for growth, and you've got your strategies for the personal side. And, at least for me, personally, I tried to like focus on both ends.

Mitch  

That's absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more.

Ryan  

It's just time flew. I've got one last question for you. And then we're gonna wrap up with you, sharing your website or whatever else you want to share. I like to talk about the meaning of life. Because I'm just interested in that topic, especially hearing it from hearing the answer from guests like you, so through your lens through the lens of Mitch, what is the meaning of life?

Mitch  

So for my truth, the meaning of life is expressing our gift to the world and shedding the masks that we have been conditioned to wear since childhood. And embracing authenticity, doing what we're, you know, called to do, and surrounding ourselves with people that really set us on fire, that makes us feel loved and appreciate it.

Ryan  

Awesome. Love that answer. Great way to end it. Mitch, thanks for everything you shared. Where should we send people if they want to learn more about you?

Mitch  

Thanks, appreciate you. So they can read my blogs at debug life.com. And they can follow me on Instagram as same handle the debug life, and I kind of share everything we've just been talking about, as well as all the content I've put out there. So yeah, I would love to talk to the guests there. Excellent.

Ryan

Great job, Mitch. Thank you.

Mitch

Thanks for Shut it.

Announcer  

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