You get ten phone calls a day.
Or a hundred emails a day.
Or you end up in a crisis situation every other day.
Or you get into an accident or find your health significantly compromised every third day.
Or someone you know calls you every fourth day to complain about a problem that they have no intention of actually fixing, but you sit there listening, knowing that the next day you’ll have to hear about a friend of a friend’s problems — in person.
Enough already!
Whatever the case is, there are stressful situations out there, just waiting for you to attract them like a magnet.
So that whatever you really want to spend your time doing — like finishing that novel or training for that marathon or just spending more time relaxing by the pool — well you can forget that, because a million other things are invading your mental space and taking up all of your precious time and energy.
Let yourself get frustrated
When you’re overwhelmed, the first step to fixing the problem is to vent it out so you can see that a problem even exists. Don’t censor your politically incorrect thoughts, your cuss words of choice, or your raw emotions… because they are going to help you find out what’t wrong and why.
Take a step back
Once you’ve gotten the emotions out of your system, then you can think straight again. Then you can mindfully look at the situation… and how you may have perpetuated, allowed, or at least co-created it.
Yeah, this is a tough one, and it’s no fun. But if you are partly the cause for your frustration, you need to admit it before you can fix it.
Find out what you really want to do
Then take a look at what you would rather be doing instead of spending all of your time being royally overwhelmed.
Is it the pool? The marathon? The novel? Or something even better?
Whatever it is, it’s much better than being royally overwhelmed, so keep the prize in sight.
Get clear on how being overwhelmed only sabotages you
Now ask yourself, what would really happen if you did what you really wanted to do?
Might there be anything that would make you nervous, or even a little afraid?
Like… not being there when others need you, or not being able to return all the voice messages or respond to all the emails. Or, maybe even feeling a bit guilty that you can indulge in fun or passionate work when everyone else you know has to tough out a more demanding, more overwhelming lifestyle?
Chances are there’s some fear, hidden somewhere… that has made it reasonable to your Ego to find some way to perpetuate, allow, or at least co-create your state of royal overwhelm.
Realize that you let yourself get overwhelmed
Otherwise, if you were really focused on the prize, you would have been mindful of every minute in your day, you would have set down strong and healthy boundaries to protect your prize, and you would have diffused any obstacles with steadfast resolve to earn it.
In other words, chances are that you (perhaps subconscioulsy) choose to get this overwhelmed — to protect yourself from some irrational fear about actually being able to do what you really want to. But only you can really answer that.
The good news is, if you can choose royal overwhelm, you can unchoose it to. And the even better news is that realizing your choice gets you 90% of the way there — to the pool or the race or the top of the best sellers list.
So say goodbye to a hundred emails a day and say hello to happy unchoosing.
