Are you suffering from a little stress or overwhelm at the moment? How do you stop yourself going into the doldrums and affecting your health? Here are some tips to get you motivated and working through stuff today.
Stop and refocus !
Yes I know it’s the last thing you want to do right now. The wheels mustn’t stop turning gotta keep everything moving along. I am asking you to please stop – pause and connect with your breath and yourself. Lovely big belly breaths combined with vocal sighs if you feel drawn to. We are checking in on you and what’s going on, learning to create that calmness and mindfulness for a moment. Tuning in to how the body feels and how it is holding everything that you are carrying.
I put practices into my day that really help me stay in tune and on plan. I make sure that I plan my time, ensure it is something that I am doing just for me – even if it is my learning, listening to music or reading a chapter of a book. I though I would take time to share the things I have found particularly helpful and hope that some will resonate with you.
Things that have helped me avoid overwhelm
Stop and Plan
The first thing is what I have already stated above – stop. Planning is a very powerful tool when done properly but takes time. If we fail to give time to planning we can slip into auto pilot and fire fighting all the time. I teach my clients about planning all the time and I certainly know when I have not followed y own rules, procrastination creeps in, lack of focus and eventually the dread overwhelming feeling that can stop us in our tracks. In business sometimes we lose sight of our goals and priorities, so my first tip is plan, have a theme and stick to it. Your theme and 90 day plan can be a great filter for asking your self a question when things crop up screaming for your attention. Say to your self, ‘is this going to get me closer to my plan’? If not, why does it deserve you attention, can it wait until the next 90 day plan? Use an ideas car park to help with shiny object syndrome too – we cannot progress all ideas at once no matter how great.
Action and impact
Use you energy wisely, it helps to know what actions are going to have the biggest impact on your current situation. What is it that you need to deliver on or need immediately? If sales or money then think about the quick wins, who can you follow up, what was the quote that needed to be done? Yes I know that the CRM needs updating and our customer journey or Sales templates were being created but is that going to deliver the impact you need now? Does this make sense? I know I have been in the position of putting things off because of perfection and then not getting anywhere but feeling the task growing. Again it is about growing a deeper sense of awareness to know when this is happening or having a thought partner that can check in and give you an outside perspective.
Keeping a clear head when chaos is around you
How can you create that pause or moment of stillness, what can you do when you catch yourself in the escalation to overwhelm? Meditation is a lifesaver but what if you struggle to do this? I have put in simple grounding times like my morning coffee in the garden, preferably barefoot. Anchoring an activity to something you regularly do (like my morning coffee) can really help form new habits. I also use this time for mindfulness, smelling herbs, observing colours and take pictures of the flowers to share. I set my intention for the day and give my worries to mother earth, thankful to just be.
It is a time that I can do my visualisation exercise, 3 minutes on where I want to be connecting emotionally and physically with my plan. Setting the energy right for the day too.
Is the stress yours
One of the hardest lessons I have had to learn is to let go and surrender what is not mine. If you are worried about something ask yourself “Is it mine?” Are you fretting over something to which you have no control? If yes then let it go it is not your journey, if you cannot change an an outcome by your actions then it is ill focused action. Focus where you can make a difference.
This may sound harsh and when the stakes are high it is not easy to step back and watch others suffer but if we are not in a fit state then we cannot be there when we can be of help.
What can we do when the load gets too much?
When we just have too much to get done and no time there are various options. You can put more hours in but this is a short term / emergency option and probably the route to overwhelm and exhaustion. The biggest one we tend to ignore is to ask for help, put a brave face on. Another person may not always be able to give time or take a load off but you will get another perspective and friendly support. If you have a team effective delegation is key and this can be an issue for some to let go of responsibility to others. Paying another individual or company is always an option, but what if the only option you see is just you?
We sometimes need to learn to accept that we can only do what we can do, if we have got ourselves into this position the question is why? It is not about blame or beating ourselves up it is so that we can focus on taking steps to ensure we do not let it happen again. Learning from the experience. When we are heavily thinking from our emotional brain it is not easy to get clarity and plan solutions, do not react and act in the heat of the moment, wait until you can see clearly or talk with others. Don’t give up and quit on your dream in emotional chaos, let the storm pass. Because it will and you’ll thank yourself for the pause and wait.
Picking ourselves up
We therefore need to be able to lift ourselves up and out of this panic that sets in. Yes we are allowed our duvet days but we cannot allow them to become bad weeks, months and onward. So we dip into our toolbox and keep adding to it with what works (hence why I am sharing my tips). We need to get our central nervous system in a balanced state first before we make decisions, I find that breathing exercises really help. You may not think that 2 minutes can have an impact but believe me it works. We need a mixture of quick wins and feel good prioritised actions to get us back to an even playing field – you can check out my blog https://www.white-tiger.co.uk/keep-the-fire-burning-when-the-low-fuel-light-of-our-enthusiasm-starts-to-flash/ for items to add into your toolbox.
Your immediate plan of action
Focusing on the quick wins (easy actions to close out quickly) could be a way of helping you kick start, we all know that feeling as we tick things from our to do list. Choose a couple of things that you can complete easily and quickly; when you start to tick things off your list you will be motivated to carry on because of the feeling it gives you to strike them off the list. Yes it will not take away the larger stuff that is looming over you but it will start you off in the right frame of mind, therefore I believe you need to tackle some of each starting with some small wins. Some of you may be aware of the Eat that Frog concept but if it isn’t working give my way a try.
Next ask yourself what one task will make a real difference to the situation and make me feel great if I complete it? Again feel into it and get emotionally attached to the vision of you successfully reaching your goal.
Now focus on this one thing and one thing only and keep at it until it’s done, no distractions. When your done make sure you celebrate, feel good about your achievement. Then pause, breath and repeat.
You can vocalise what you are focusing on to another, then you have an added accountability reason to pursue the action. I practiced all of this today and shared my goal with someone I met networking, told them to ask me next time we spoke. I have now had the most focused session on my book instead of dipping in and out of things that need to be done.
Working with others is another thing that can help, I used to belong to a planning group and we hired a venue for the morning to share wins and dedicate time to team planning. It certainly helped me stick to planning ahead and accountable to share where I was on my journey.
A warning about to do lists!
One thing to add is that a to do list is isn’t time bound we may have an expectation of when it will be completed, like a weekly task list. Usually there is no information of how long each item will take us, so how do we expect to know if the list is achievable by the end of the week? Lists like this can set us up to fail at our own targets and cause overwhelm, I teach my clients a simple planning process that removes lists and uses other methods to qualify tasks and write action plans that work, are achievable and simply get things done. If you need help with planning or need some mentoring to get you where you need to be, feel free to email me and we can have a complimentary hour chat to go through your current challenges and start you on your way – info@white-tiger.co.uk
Quick wins (easy actions to close out quickly) could be a way of helping but cannot take away the larger stuff that is looming over you. Therefore I believe you need to tackle some of each. Choose a couple of things that you can complete easily and quickly; when you start to tick things off your list you will be motivated to carry on because of the feeling it gives you to strike them off the list.
Next ask yourself what one task will make a real difference to the situation and make me feel great if I complete it? Again feel into it and get emotionally attached to the vision of you successfully reaching your goal.
Now focus on this one thing and one thing only and keep at it until it’s done, no distractions. When your done make sure you celebrate, feel good about your achievement. Then pause, breath and repeat.
You can vocalise what you are focusing on to another, then you have an added accountability reason to pursue the action. I practiced all of this today and shared my goal with someone I met networking, told them to ask me next time we spoke. I have now had the most focused session on my book instead of dipping in and out of things that need to be done.
One thing to add is that a to do list is isn’t time bound we may have an expectation of when t will be completed, like a weekly task list. Usually there is no information of how long each item will take us, so how do we expect to know if the list is achievable by the end of the week? Lists like this set us up to fail at our own targets and cause overwhelm, I teach my clients a simple planning process that removes lists and uses other methods to qualify tasks and write action plans that work, are achievable and simply get things done. If you need help with planning or need some mentoring to get you where you need to be, feel free to email me and we can have a complimentary hour chat to go through your current challenges and start you on your way – info@white-tiger.co.uk
