To get yourself into

To get yourself into

What am I getting myself into? How many times have I asked myself that? What situation am I putting myself in? We usually say “get yourself into” when we’re talking about a surprising or difficult situation. Something that’s overwhelming. Something that’s more than you thought originally.

You’ve got to imagine that the contestants at McKamey Manor think this over and over as they go through the course. Sure, the waiver gives them some idea of what they’re getting themselves into. And, yes, the videos of past contestants suffering—that also gives them an idea of what they’re getting themselves into. But can you ever really know what it’s like to be buried alive before it happens to you? I don’t think so. They might not admit it, but I bet as the coffin slams shut, more than one contestant is wondering, “what am I getting myself into?”

That is an extreme example, but you can use this in a variety of ways. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I agreed to host a Thanksgiving dinner!” That means, you’re looking backward, saying, back when I agreed to host the big meal, back then, I had no idea how difficult it would be. I had no idea how many things I had to cook at the same time. I had no idea how hard it was going to be to find enough plates and serving dishes. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I didn’t know the difficult and complicated situation that I was putting myself in.

Many of you know I work in business consulting. And in consulting, we do projects for clients. Sometimes when we sign up to do a project, we know exactly what we’re getting into. We’ve done things like that so many times, it just won’t be a surprise when we start the job. But other times, we don’t exactly know what we’re getting ourselves into. We try our best to guess. We ask questions. We look at prior examples. But there are times where it’s impossible to know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into—we just have to do our best when the project starts.

Before I started this podcast about two years ago, I spent a long time thinking about the time commitment, the complexity, how I was going to fit this into my schedule. Would I really be able to be at home every weekend to record the program? 52 weeks a year, no exceptions? What would I have to do if I wanted to be away for a weekend? I made sure that I knew what I was getting into before I started. A lot of podcasters make the mistake of not thinking this through. They just start and then realize how much work it is, and they give up. They don’t really know what they’re getting themselves into, until they’ve already started. That’s why so many podcasts have seven episodes! So when you see one that’s a few hundred or even a thousand episodes, like some out there, that’s a sign that the people behind it knew what they were getting into beforehand, and they planned out their commitment.

Quote of the week

Here’s a quote I heard on a business podcast I listen to. And I’ve been thinking about lifestyle a lot, and creating a life and a routine that I want for myself. That’s a topic for another day. But I was listening to this podcast of entrepreneurs who were saying how they plan their days, what they do in the morning to get their days off to a good start. And the host opened up with a quote that I thought framed the issue really well. Here’s the quote: “Would you ever wait to tune your violin until after the symphony is over?” And the purpose here is to say that we often jump into our days, jump into our work, before getting fully ready and fully prepared. Before making sure we are ready for the challenges of the day. The message in this podcast episode I heard was that we all have obligations in the world—to our families, to our jobs, to our businesses, if we have one—but we often neglect taking care of ourselves and preparing ourselves to deliver our best to the people and organizations in our lives. The message was to tune your violin, take care of yourself, prepare yourself mentally for what’s to come, first—and then start the symphony, then start the craziness of your day.

I start my day by looking at emails—work emails, Plain English emails, personal emails—and notifications, and I’m thinking about my calendar and my schedule and calls all during breakfast. And I often find myself neglecting what I need to get ready and do my best because I’m so anxious to start. So I’m taking that quote as advice and I’m going to try to tune my violin, to prepare myself mentally, before jumping into the craziness of each day.

I’d love to know what you all think about this, if you have anything you do to level-set, to get yourself off to a good start in the day. If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments section at PlainEnglish.com/210.

That is all for today. I hope you listened to this one in the morning, not at night. Hopefully no nightmares in the world of Plain English. We’ll be back here for the next episode on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. See you then.

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