Breaking The Pack Rat Habit For Lasting Focus

Our team thought it was a great idea to start rewinding previous (but timely) episodes of our show during the times that Mista Yu is away from the microphone. All of these beautiful Blasts from the Past were previously broadcast, but we are sharing them with you at a time when you might need them most. Hope you enjoy the review!

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What if the comfort you’re chasing is the very thing holding you back? We open the vault and pull a listener favorite from the archives to examine the “pack rat” mindset—why we drop what truly matters to grab whatever glitters, and how that reflex drains focus, money, and momentum. Through honest stories, sharp metaphors, and a few hard-won lessons, we explore the pull of shiny objects, the psychology of hoarding, and the subtle slide from healthy goals to quiet idolatry.

You’ll hear how emotional attachment turns objects into anchors, why quick wins often hide long-term losses, and what it takes to trade impulse for intention. We break down the difference between wide focus and narrow focus using the magnifying glass idea: the same light becomes powerful when concentrated. From there, we map out practical ways to rebuild your “nest” with discipline and clarity—budget guardrails that reflect your values, routines that protect deep work, and small daily rules that keep hype from hijacking your plan.

Along the way, we challenge the belief that more stuff equals more safety and offer a better lens: live with open hands. When you prioritize stewardship over ownership, generosity over accumulation, and purpose over polish, you uncrowd your life and make room for results that last. If you’ve been stuck in the loop of buying, scrolling, or starting and never finishing, this conversation is your reset button. Hit play, share it with a friend who needs a focus tune-up, and if it resonates, subscribe, leave

Our team will choose random (but timely) episodes from our previous three seasons (which are our most popular ever!) to share with our listeners during the slower parts of a long podcast season. We think you will enjoy them! Thanks for listening!

Coffee aficionados and Health Conscious listeners, our show has some new sponsors and they’re offering you the best discounts their stores have. Links are below. Start saving now!

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The link is in the show notes. Can't wait to hear how much you love Strong Coffee!

Chapters

• 1:27 Archive Series Announcement
• 2:50 Audience Feedback On “Pack Rat”
• 4:40 Defining The Pack Rat Mindset
• 7:02 Shiny Objects And Lost Focus
• 10:28 Idols Have The Power We Give
• 15:16 Emotional Attachment And Hoarding
• 18:18 Sponsor Break: Strong Coffee
• 20:02 When Creations Control The Creator
• 24:43 The Cost Of Impulse Over Duty
• 28:46 Wide Focus Vs Narrow Focus

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:44

Hey friends and families, it's Mr. You. Now, I team wanna try something fresh and something different, especially during our slower months of the season. So, starting this season, we're gonna release random but timely episodes from our first few seasons, which I gotta tell you are the most popular seasons of our entire podcast brand history. I think when you hear them, you'll know why they're so popular. It's gonna be great for new listeners and great also for long time listeners who've been following us for a while. So stay tuned. Thank you for watching us and for listening. Hope you enjoy this new experience. We're going into the archives. Here's a black in the past right now. I think you'll enjoy. Have fun. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Call Me Mr. You, the All-Purpose Pod for an all-purpose life. With a chicken L today, baby, we play the win, and I'm your coach, Mr. You Guys, thank you so much again for joining us. We really appreciate it. This is a special Saturday morning episode of They Call Me Mr. You. When the holidays come around, you know how it is. Schedules change a little bit, they fluctuate. But thank you for staying flexible with us and for continuing to support us. We really appreciate it, guys. Thank you so much. Guys, I've been hearing from you guys. I've been hearing from you. You've been talking about the Diary of Pack Rat. It's one of the best articles that I've ever written. I gotta be honest about it. But what I love and what I'm really excited about and what I really appreciate is the responses that you guys have been having regarding it. How it's changing your lives on a personal level, how you're seeing changes in areas where changes is required. I love what's going on. So if you haven't checked it out yet, by all means, please jump onto our website at dot com. They call me Mr.You.com. Check out our blog section and scroll down till you find the diary of a pack rat. I guarantee you it's gonna make you think a lot differently about where you are. Now, because of the the level of response that we've got from this article, I want to take our special Saturday morning episode of the podcast to talk about some aspects of the pack rat. Now, this is not a cheat sheet. I still want you to check the article out. So, what we're talking about today on the episode will not be specifically from the article. We'll be talking about some different aspects. So I'm gonna be giving you a little extra in addition to what's in the article. So I hope you enjoy this. And I highly recommend the article check it out on.com. They call me Mr. You dot com. Check out our blog section, and the article is entitled The Diary of a Pack Rat. Alright, so what is a pack rat? Essentially, if we're talking about the person or the term that's used to describe certain people, is someone unable or ineffective at getting rid of old stuff. They stockpile things, they save unnecessary items and they hoard things they don't really need to keep. That's to pack rat in terms of people, in terms of us as human beings. But as far as the animal kingdom is concerned, it's a rat-like rodent that nests in North and Central America. I think to some degree they're kind of nocturnal, but they hoard sticks and debris for their nest. It's kind of what they do. I know they feed, they have to eat, obviously, but one of their biggest tasks is that they hoard sticks and debris for their nest. It makes you wonder what they're doing. What the goal is there. It's almost like they're almost preparing for doomsday or something. Like they're doomsday preppers. They hoard sticks and debris, and it's all they do. The bigger the nest, the more comfortable they are, I guess. That kind of hits me there a little bit. Does it hit you? The bigger your nest, the more comfortable you are. What comes to mind when you hear that? That's what's happening with the pack rat, but what's going on with you? You know, at first I didn't understand the pack rat's mentality. Then I received a little bit of wisdom that I think helped me understand it a little bit better. It seems as though to me that from my research, the pack rat gains a sense of security from a bigger and a fuller nest. They take comfort in the things that they can possess. I don't know about you, but that does sound like many that we may know, perhaps even ourselves, if we're honest about it today. The pack rat gains a sense of security from a bigger and a fuller nest. They take comfort in the things that they can possess. Sound like I'm rhyming. They're attracted and even hypnotized by the shiny objects. Think about what's going on. They're coming out of their safe space, their safe space, excuse me, to get sticks and debris to fill their nest. To make things more comfortable for them. And what's diverting their focus in the corner of their eye is a shiny object. The pack rat. The pack rat's mentality is to drop his debris. To drop his sticks. And pick up that shiny object and take it back to the nest. Now, at this point, I'm thinking that the pack rats nest is probably bling out of control. They're having a bling-a-thon down there, wherever they're nesting. Because every shiny object that they come across, they bring it back to their nest. At the risk of not having enough of the sticks and debris they need to make the kind of nest that they need to make. So, in a way, the shiny objects are to their detriment. Yes, they're shiny, they're pretty, they're nice, they bling, but it's to their detriment. We know that most things that are shiny lose value over time. These shiny objects don't have any power. They don't often really create value. They actually lose value over time. So all of the shiny objects these pack rats bring to their nests, there's no value. There's nothing there that helps a pack rat as it pertains to their primary goal of nest building. They were diverted from their focus, they were detoured from their course because of a shiny object. Can you relate out there? Is anybody hearing me today? These shiny objects don't have power. If you do a search on it or look up anything regarding idolatry as a key word in the Bible, in your searching, you're gonna see a series of events, a continuous behavior of men who would take gold and silver, wood and stone, and make statues, idols, statuettes, and trinkets, and begin to look to them for guidance, look to them for wisdom, look to them in the beauty of worship. They will look at something that they made with their hands and expect it to give them something in return. Something deep down inside that wood and stone and gold and silver really can't even give you if we're honest about it today. These shiny objects don't have power. They can't talk, they can't move, they can't heal, they can't deliver, and they can't save. They can't fix broken marriages, they can't bring wealth to the region. They can't bring crops to a barren land, they can't do any of those things. The whole point is that whether it's a shiny object or an idol or some other little god that may be in our life, they don't have any power except the power that we ascribe to them. They only have the power that we give them. You know, it's perplexing to me that we would ever give worship in a fashion to something that we've made ourselves. It's crazy to me. But idolatry was so rampant, it was definitely a pattern of behavior that spans centuries. And to be honest with you, if you look around, if you look in your own personal mirror, if you look around you, we're inundated with it still. Idolatry is still a thing. We still drop our sticks and our debris for our nest in favor of the shiny thing. We still do it. We're still doing it today. We're being diverted from where our focus should be in favor of something shiny, of that new thing, of that object we think is gonna give us status, make us look good in the eyes of others, give us validation. But they lose value over time. If you want to see a devotion and affection on steroids, try to take something from someone who is a hoarder. Watch the frantic, almost desperate response. Look at their eyes. Look at the fear. If you decide to take that picture, that memento, that piece of jewelry, whatever it is that they have stockpiled in their life. I wonder what happened if you ran into that pack rat who had that shiny item in his hand and you decided to try to take it from. I wonder what would happen. I wonder what their response would be. How would the pack rat respond? Hey guys, it's Mr. You. You know how much Mr. You loves his coffee. I think I found the answer for all you guys that are health conscious but still love coffee, strong coffee company. 15 grams of high quality protein, check. Sustain energy throughout the day, check. No jitters and crashes, check. Stress relievers like Ashwagonda for your morning commute, check and double check. It's also good for your skin. Come on now. A healthy alternative that actually tastes good. I've arranged the highest exclusive discount for my listeners. Use the promo code strongcoffeecompany.com forward slash discount forward slash TCMY. That's what they call me, Mr. U. StrongCoffeeCompany.com forward slash discount forward slash TCMY. The link is also in the show notes. Check out Strong Coffee. Let me know what you think. That is the level of emotional attachment that things can often have on people. I don't want to understate that and trivialize it. It's deep, it's powerful, it's spiritual, but it's not good. You know, I was thinking about some movies lately that I just I wanted to use them for research for this episode today. But three came to mind for me that I thought make good sense to share with you guys today. If you watched a movie Frankenstein or any iteration of it, the premise is still the same. How about iRobot with Will Smith? There's a movie called Hal, H-A-L. Check that one out. Those movies are frightening. See, most of y'all are scared of Jason and Freddie and Michael Myers. But these movies are frightening. Frankenstein and Iron Robot and Hal, those movies are frightening. They're disturbing to me. And the reason why is for one simple reason. It's because we can use our vast creative abilities, our intellect, our knowledge, and then dip all that knowledge and wisdom in ignorance and arrogance and pride, and begin to make and form something that can potentially be our undoing, something that can turn against us. Something that we make can potentially devour us. I think that's scary. I think it's scary because it's so close to real life. Are you able to say that you haven't built up a certain image, a concept, an idea in your life, a certain priority level, and you found that it's not serving you well like you thought? You're finding that now it's caused you to change from the essence of who you are into someone you don't recognize. Lose valuable friendships, lose viable opportunities, because you put this thing that you created in such high regard, at such a high priority level, even above God, even above your family, even above your own needs. There's this dude that I don't know if he still lives in Charleston, but I know him from being out here several years ago. This man had uh, it wasn't a it was a very expensive car. I can't I can't recall the make it model, but he would essentially worship this car every day. He would wash it every day. And I mean every day, without fail. If it's raining, he would still wash it. I seen it. And when he's not washing it, he would come outside the apartment complex and check on it, look at it with a rag in his hand, he would touch it, make sure that there's no smudges. I mean, he would do this throughout the day all day. If he wasn't driving it, he was catering to it in that way. I thought it was disturbing. I'm like, okay, this is the car, but the man truly, for whatever the reason, I don't know, maybe his great-grandmother gave him the car that has sentimental value. I don't know. I don't know, but he was in love with it. I don't know if he had a social life, but this car represented 70% of that life, whatever it was. He spent that much time in it. That was that's that's in the uh that's a great example and uh uh an example of worship. That's an example of idolatry. That car, that shiny thing was more important to him than anything else. For whatever the reason it was, it meant that much to him. If it shines, it's mines, says the pack rat. Big hand tabs, bottle caps, jewelry, coins. If it shines, it's mines, says the pack rat. You know, my little sister has a joke that she loved to say, and because she knows I would laugh every single time. And I'm probably still laughing now because it's still funny to me. I don't know why. Little inside joke between her and I, I guess. But she would tell an amazing story, and right in the middle of it, when the story's getting good, she'll look up into the sky and say, ooh, shiny. And I'll bust out laughing every time. It's so funny, but it is actually the perfect picture of the pack rat life, if I ever heard it. It's the perfect picture of distraction. That's what happens to us in a way. We're on our road to destiny, we're focused on what we're supposed to be doing, and ooh, shiny. We look up and forget all about our role, our assignment, where we were headed. All in favor of the shiny thing that we just want to have and attain so much. Does that make sense to you guys? There's nothing wrong with having a dream or a vision. But not having a narrow focus is the kiss of death to any kind of success you'll have. Don't you know somebody? I know you have to know someone who has great ideas. They always have the next big thing in their hands. The best way to get rich. They know if we if we invest in this, we're gonna make millions. You know, your friend that has all the big ideas. Do they have discipline? Do they have focus? Have you seen that prior to this idea being shared with you? Without discipline and without focus? Those kind of folks are hard to trust because they're not much different than a pack rat. Not much different at all. They always look or they're always inclined to choose the shiny thing over obligation, over responsibility, over discipline, over consistency. They choose the shiny thing instead, every single time. How's their life going, by the way? That person that came to your mind when I said that, how's their life going? Just something to think about. So imagine this. Mary sent her husband Mike to the supermarket with their last fifty dollars to get groceries to last them for the week. Mike has a very specific list in his hand. Every item that the family needs for the week, essentially to survive. She sent him to the supermarket with the last$50. But Mike sees a sale on fidget spinners. God help that man. And he buys$50 worth of fidget spinners so he can sell them on eBay for a quick profit. Thinking maybe that might help his family more. But in Mike's impetuousness and his hastiness, Mike forgot one important thing. How does Mike, Mary, and their children eat tonight? When we're in favor of a shiny thing, the little gods in our life, we're thinking about the now. We rarely ever think about the later. Even when the pack rat, in all of his primitive nature, ventures out from his nest to go and get sticks and debris for his nests, to protect his family, to provide them with comfort. And he comes back home with a shiny earring instead of the sticks that they need for their nest. He hasn't provided comfort. He satisfied a personal, selfish inclination to have that shiny thing as opposed to fulfilling his obligation. I don't know about you, but this is a grow-up time, baby. It's time to be mature. I'm not saying go out and get a job and work 40 years and perhaps get a fake gold watch and a pension. I'm not saying that. I'm not advocating that at all. But that pack rap mentality, we need to shed that bad boy as quick as possible. Because it's not fruitful for us and it keeps us grounded in the now and not thinking about the future. Those are not good investments because they always tarnish, they always fade. When I was a kid, I used to love playing with magnifying glasses. One of my first introductions to science, if you will. Think about imagine this imagery. When the sun shines on all of us on a nice summer day, right? That's considered a wide focus. It's a wide focus. All of us, my me, my friends on the block, people who I know who are blocks away, miles away in the city, they all are feeling the warmth from the same sun. That's considered a wide focus. Everyone is receiving that. It's widely spread. The narrow focus is what I learned by playing with that magnifying glass. The sun's light would be magnified by that glass. And anything on the other side of that magnifying glass would be crispy. Because all the warmth and the intensity of the sun and the heat that we all would feel in a wide focus, it was magnified narrowly, a narrow focus through that magnifying glass. Whether it was a leaf or a bug or a piece of paper, they would burn under that heat. Which has the more defined impact in your life? Do you have a more wide focus or are you inclined to a narrow focus? See, the wide focus is where the pack rat would fall. It's all about the debris, it's all about the sticks, it's all about building the nests. It's the primary goal. It's the wide focus. Because he'll drop all of those in favor of a shiny object. I always talk about one of my favorite Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 6, verse 6 to 7. Consider the ant. They have a narrow focus. I don't care what's going on. That ant's going to get that food for the winter. And they don't stop. Why everybody's having a good time? They take care of their business. They know that instinctively to do that. The ants have a narrow focus. See, distraction rules the pack ramp. Distraction detours destiny. Distraction shines brighter than your obligation. Distraction promises the whole world, but leaves your nest unprotected and incomplete. It will make you forfeit the promise and your destiny for something shiny that is guaranteed to tarnish, that's guaranteed to fade. I don't know about you guys, but even in that, I learned something about living with open hands. If our only goal is to have and possess, we're living a closed life. The treasure that really matters is the one that's yet to be revealed. All of our working, all of our serving, all of our giving, all of our loving, if it's all about what we get out of it, if it's all about what happens for us and how it benefits me. We're living such a closed life. Let's begin to think about living with open hands, being generous and compassionate and giving. So, guys, what do you think? What do you think about this pack rat situation? What do you think? Do you see some tendencies of a pack rat in your life? Do you see some tendencies to hoard things that are unnecessary, that don't have any value, that are tarnishing and fading by the day? There's some things that don't apply. I understand that. And hopefully you do as well. But the things I'm talking about change the way you treat people, change the way you look at your road to success. It changes how you function. And sometimes they paralyze you from being able to function and be effective. Guys, it's time for you to enlarge your tents. Make room. Get rid of the old stuff. Get rid of the old people. You know who they are. We talked about them on the last episode of the podcast. You know who they are. And you know where they belong. It's time to make some changes, guys. It's not about what we can possess. Don't be distracted. Stay focused. Guys, thank you so much for joining us on They Call Me Mr. You, the all-purpose pod for an all-purpose life. Thank you so much. We really appreciate you guys tuning in on this Saturday morning episode of They Call Me Mr. You. We'll be back next week at our normal schedule time. So until then, here's what I want you to do. Stay engaged. Stay in the game. Don't give up. We got you. If you have any questions or thoughts or comments, reach out on our Facebook page and they call me Mr. You. I'll be glad to chat with you guys a little bit this weekend. Love somebody and love yourself. I'm your coach. Keep tracking with us. Have a great day. Coach out.