Limitless Monday – Feeling Overwhelmed? Get Over It!

Limitless Monday – Feeling overwhelmed? Get over it!

“I am feeling overwhelmed” is a phrase we use too often.

I have to admit to not being overly sympathetic when I hear these words.

We are under more pressure than ever before, with additional obligations and responsibilities than any other generation. In my opinion there are three groups: the successful amongst us, who are better at managing daily pressures; the mediocre, who muddling through: and unfortunately, for want of a better word, the losers, who constantly whine and complain about ‘stress’, making excuses for their failures, stalled lives, and how their dreams remain just that: dreams. Think about the last group of people when you next feel overwhelmed. Do you want to end up like that?

If you can’t manage your daily lives without feeling overwhelmed, then it is going to be impossible to take on additional responsibilities, new challenges, and ambitious goals. You can forget about all that.

When you hear yourself say, “I feel overwhelmed,” your first reaction should be to treat it as a warning sign. A warning that you must take action right now to correct this debilitating bug in your brain.

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Those amongst us who continue to complain about this feeling are locked in a loop, like a drug addict they have decided to continue with their compulsive behavior as they see no way out. But there is a way out.

First you must decide you never want to feel overwhelmed again. Next you must develop a strategy to cope with your existing obligations and take on more, much more. Do you think Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or Jeff Bezos complain about being overwhelmed? It’s laughable! However, they are human; they just think slightly differently than the majority of us. You can do the same!

The method I use to deal with pressure coming from all corners is simple.

If I have a multitude of different situations that occupy my mind at any one time, I focus on the one that is taking up most of my thinking time. That is the one I solve first. Only when I have a solution to problem number one do I move on to problem number two. And so on. If you try to focus on all five problems in one go, you will achieve nothing. My advice is, always, work on one problem at a time.

I had a girlfriend once who would tell me on a near daily basis that she felt overwhelmed.

At the time I wasn’t sympathetic; to be honest, I am not very sympathetic now, either. I would often drill down to find out what was making her feel this way. It appeared that the cause of her mental overload remained unchanged from one day to another. Work issues, problems with her son, conflicts with co-workers, financial worries. The reasons for my lack of sympathy were two-fold. First, she never tried to work on the root of the cause, and, secondly, her negativity began to impact me. The latter reason partly explains why she is my ex.

She occupied that loop. She wanted to get out of it but not hard enough. She was satisfied with her position in life, and wasn’t particularly interested in growing. My advice fell on deaf ears.

Next time you feel overwhelmed, decide this is going to be the last time you feel this way, and take that first problem and smash it to pieces. Do the same with the next problem.

If you decide to continue on the same path and accommodate that debilitating feeling, know that you have decided to take the path of mediocrity. That’s your choice, but remember you do have a choice.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Overwhelmed. Image Credit – Michael Hamments