You need to accomplish so many things, and it feels like you have such a small amount of time to get everything done. When most people look at their to-do list, it seems like it is filled with hundreds of items, creating a feeling of overwhelm. Where should you start, what do you need to do, and how do you put everything together in the correct order? The good news is that there are actual steps you can take to help this feeling of overwhelm subside by determining where it is coming from and steps for moving forward.
New Journeys Create Overwhelming Feelings
The overwhelming feeling is a natural reaction to something new in our world. When we come to a road in our lives that we have never gone down, our natural instinct is to overload with information which can trigger the overwhelm and shutdown reaction. This is the time to take a deep breath and really assess what is causing these feelings. Once you learn that this is a common feeling and it can be controlled, you can begin sorting through the process and stop the overwhelm by making sure that you are very clear about what it is that you need to do.
The Past Influences The Present
One of the reasons you feel this sense of overwhelm in a new situation has little to do with what is going on in your current world and a great deal to do with your past experiences. When you were a child, your response to situations was influenced heavily by those around you and your environment. It actually becomes part of who you are and your worldview, and these thoughts have become part of your truth. This matters in overwhelming situations because our tendencies in stress are to revert to our natural programming. Have you ever been in a high-intensity moment and said something and immediately realized that you sounded exactly like your mother or father? That is because of the programming that is part of your mindset. When presented with a new problem or new information, it is imperative that you pause and evaluate your response. Is how you feel rational, or is it simply an old belief system that needs to be evaluated and thought through a different method of thinking? By taking the time to evaluate your response, you can sort through what is real and what is simply a learned reaction based on past experiences and beliefs.
Exclude What Is Not Relevant
One of the most critical steps to overcoming overwhelm is looking at everything you feel bombarded with and weeding out what is relevant. Think of it like how you look at a menu and decide what to eat – I had this yesterday, I don’t like this, I need to stay on a specific diet, etc.; you will do the exact process with the list of things in front of you by excluding all of the items that are not relevant to you. For example, you will determine that you do not want to deploy a Twitter strategy, but you will start a YouTube strategy. Look at your clients and determine if an Instagram strategy makes sense for what you are trying to accomplish. Overwhelm will begin to diminish when you pause and use your logical mind to determine what is relevant to what you are trying to accomplish.
Organize Your Strategy For Action
When you understand that overwhelmed business owners are feeling this way because of a multitude of things floating around without priority, it allows you to see the importance of creating a business strategy to place goals in a step-by-step order. Once a system is implemented, the confusion subsides because the steps needed are placed in order for success. Once you know what you are going to do, you can decide if you will do it yourself or hire someone to accomplish that specific task. For instance, are you going to learn how to write a sales sequence, or will you hire a writer? Are you going to set up the email sequences yourself, or will you hire someone to accomplish this task? Instead of becoming overwhelmed with all of the tasks, they are now in order, and you can determine what to do to execute the specific items in the strategy.
You stop the overwhelm by making sure that you are very clear about what you need to do, and you figure out what you need to do by having a strategy. At the Growth Architect, my goal is to help you develop a business strategy that will give you the map you need for success. If you want to learn more about building a system to overcome overwhelm, watch my video, and contact me when you are ready to create your growth strategy!
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, a training company specialized in providing companies an ROI on Balanced Leadership. She has been named one of 50 must-follow women entrepreneurs by the Huffington Post. A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, she bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal.
Beate works with business leaders and supports organizations by developing and providing training the training, tools, and expertise to create and maintain a balanced, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity, employee engagement, and corporate growth.
Recent clients include Merck, Women’s Legislative Caucus of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), NFTE, CreativeLive, the Association of Corporate Growth, and TracyLocke.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!
