Each of us can get overwhelmed from time to time. But for some people, overwhelm is a constant. It's just how they function in life.
Knowing yourself, being aware of your abilities and priorities, and creating an environment that nurtures your success can help to alleviate or minimize overwhelm and increase productivity and happiness.
Living without overwhelm, or at least minimizing it in your life, requires that you adjust and get comfortable with moving at a different pace. This may not be easy when you are accustomed to approaching life from a "gotta be busy" or "gotta keep moving" mentality. It will require practice and a new way of thinking about work. After all, how you behave right now - overwhelmed - IS your comfort zone.
Understanding your relationship with overwhelm is the first step in creating change. Awareness is always the first step.
Once you are aware, you will then need to learn new habits, new ways of thinking about and approaching work. And you will need to learn ways to stand up for yourself and create good boundaries with your time and your workload. In other words, you'll need to communicate your needs and express your expectations to others.
This can be quite difficult for people who enjoy creating drama in their lives, those who focus on pleasing others, who seek reassurance and approval from others, or who have an inner barometer that just doesn't know when to say "no."
In this blog series, we will explore managing your productivity from the perspective of pacing yourself and eliminating overwhelm.
We'll identify the barriers that keep you stuck in overwhelm and the patterns of behavior that repeatedly create stress. Coaching tips will be presented for moving you to a new place of peace and happiness, and of self-control. You will feel much more in command of your time and your choices. This will not be easy. It will take time. Change always does.
We begin by making a commitment to change. Are you tired of your overwhelm? Are you stressed, anxious, battling your inner voice that pushes you harder and harder? Are you tired of feeling drained at the end of the day? Are you suffering from high blood pressure or other physical ailment and you've been instructed to slow down and relax?
For real change to occur, you must decide that you are ready for your life to be different. You must be willing to embark upon a new journey. Only then will you be willing to take the steps required to make new habits and to stick with it. If you are comfortable with your life as it is, then this will be nice reading.
So your first coaching assignment is to make the conscious decision to improve yourself, to give up your overwhelm for a life of peace and feeling grounded and in control. You are committed to something; either you are committed to your pain of overwhelm and chaos or to the hope of a new life. To assist you in making the choice, for the next few days, observe yourself in response to your to-do list. How do you feel when you look at it? Does it make you feel stressed or anxious? Do you tend to complain a lot about how much you have to get done? Do you feel drained at the end of the day? Are you motivated when you get up in the morning or do you worry about how you'll get it all done? Does the thought of taking a vacation scare you?
By exploring these questions, you'll be able to see how much pain you are in.
Change occurs only when there is great impetus to do so. So long as the pain of doing what you've always done is less than your perception of what it will take to change, you won't do the work. But if you perceive that your pain is so great that you cannot go on any longer then you'll do whatever it takes.
I hope you'll join me for the journey away from overwhelm to peace and happiness. The choice is yours.
Your partner for success,
Coach Julie
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