3 Steps for Moving Through Overwhelm
Posted on May 08, 2013 by Cindy Hillsey, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Do you find yourself in overwhelm? Here are 3 steps for helping to move through it.
Picture this: It’s a Monday morning and the phone is ringing off the hook. It’s not even 9am yet. Your inbox looks like something blew up (things are scattered everywhere), and your to-do list doesn’t fit on one piece of paper anymore! What’s a savvy entrepreneur like yourself feeling at this particular moment? Do you want to run? Do you want to cry? Do you want to take the day off and deal with it later? All of the above? Or do you want to clean it up once and for all? I vote for cleaning it up once and for all.
Overwhelm is not a productive place to be. In fact, it is very unproductive because it blocks the necessary actions we need to take to do the things we need to do. Yet, many of us fall into overwhelm very easily. Let’s look at what overwhelm really is. To feel overwhelmed is to feel unable to do. The root of overwhelm is an acute sense of loss of control. Often, the difference between being productively busy and being overwhelmed is simply a feeling of control. For example, when I am in charge of my activities I feel busy and productive. When I feel like someone else (client, spouse, friend, family) is in charge of my activities I begin to feel overwhelmed. This suggests a cure to being overwhelmed, right? Be in control, or have some control over what you are doing.
Let’s take a look at how we can be in control so that we are not constantly in an overwhelmed state.
Following are some examples of how easy it is to become overwhelmed and how we can move out of overwhelm:
#1: Are you in control of the decisions that affect you? What I mean by this is: If someone asks you to do something do you automatically say yes because you think, or feel, you should? Or do you participate in the decision and then say yes (or no)? Huge difference. The former takes away your control due to your passive behavior. The latter implies control because your behavior is active in the process.
#2: Do you have standards and boundaries concerning your time? If yes, do you enforce those standards and boundaries, or do you let others bend them? If you do not have standards and boundaries, it is easy to understand where overwhelm comes from. You are letting others dictate your time, and thus your energy. If you have standards and boundaries and are not enforcing them, now would be a good time to start! If you don’t have standards and boundaries, now would also be a good time to create some! Remember, you are in control of your business.
#3: Do you have a difficult time separating essential and non-essential tasks, activities, emails, requests, etc? Do you find you lose your focus rather easily on these items? If so, the remedy is to have a system in place that allows you to make a decision on the relative importance of each item. This system does not need to be complicated. On the contrary, the system should be simple and straightforward so that you are able to use it without feeling like it’s one more task. In its simplest form, the one question you should ask is: “What is the one thing I want to accomplish this year/month/week/day?” Based on your answer, all decisions you make should support this statement. If what you are being asked to do does not support this statement you need to reschedule, reframe, or refer!
The best thing you can do to support yourself and your business is to be in control. I know. Easier said than done sometimes, right? If that is how you feel, then I would encourage you to think about hiring a coach, or joining a Master Mind group to help you move through this process so that you can be the effective, efficient entrepreneur I know you to be!
