OMG I am so overwhelmed, I feel paralyzed, and have no idea where to go from here. If you have uttered these or similar words…. You are not alone.
Your mind is racing and you start listing all the things you need to do but didn’t. (for our listeners, you can go here for this full podcast)
- Oh no, I didn’t respond to that email or I didn’t call that person back
- I forgot to order that product for my customer
- I need to make a dentist appointment
- I need to book that vendor event
- Did I overshare today? Is she going to buy?
- I feel like I am not accomplishing anything
- What am I even doing?
Recently, I experienced this “extreme paralyzing overwhelm”. I got really sick. I work full time and I am a mom….. we all know, moms can’t get sick.
So, I kept pushing through, not resting, sleeping, or taking care of myself, and guess what happened? I got worse. In fact I was so sick that I had to take off work and relieve myself from my MOM duties. So what does that mean, nothing got done. The clothes didn’t get washed, bills didn’t get paid, my work responsibilities didn’t get done, I didn’t call that customer I was supposed to call, and the work kept piling up.
And that’s when the overwhelm set in. I left the house destroyed and attempted to work. I sat down and saw the 350 emails, 100 voicemails/text/Facebook messages, along with my day-to-day activities I already have to do and became completely overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start, or what to do.
I was paralyzed in a sea of overwhelm.
During my coaching calls with new and existing students, I realized I am not alone, this thing called “overwhelm” happens to all of us. It is something we cannot avoid, but we can be AWARE of.
The problem is if we get stuck in overwhelm and become paralyzed, how can we move forward to grow our business?
So today we are going to talk about how to identify, acknowledge, learn, and move on from the overwhelm into action!
Before we get started, let’s first go over what overwhelm is and why being aware and knowing how to deal with overwhelm is so important in order to move your business forward.
The definition of overwhelm is to “bury or drown beneath a huge mass.”
When you are overwhelmed, you feel a sense of being helpless, anxiety sets in, and you become paralyzed.
Overwhelmed minds are consumed by stress and have trouble focusing, planning, and moving into action.
There is a quote that states, “When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved, you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”
So, how do you get involved? Let’s get started:
Step 1: Identify what is making you feel overwhelmed
- Ex: I have so much to do.
- Ex: I am behind on doing all the things.
Step 2: Acknowledge what your feelings are
- Ex: I’m feeling stressed, anxious, and exhausted.
Step 3: Learn from it (Get it out of your head by doing a “Brain dump”)
- Make a list of all the things you need/want to do
- Prioritize that list from “have to get done today”, to “want to get done today” (you can listen to a recent podcast by one of our Leadership Coaches, Casha, who talked about how you can do this)
- Part of the feeling of “overwhelm” comes from the fact that we classify all the things we have to get done as “emergencies”, but let’s be honest, are they actually an EMERGENCY?
- Do the hardest task first (the first hour is your most productive)
- Ask for help
- We have to come to the realization that sometimes you can not do it all and that is OKAY.
Step 4: Move on and move into action
- Get out of your head, “You can do it, you have done it, and you will do it!”
- Get it done!
Final Thoughts –
So, when you start to feel stressed or anxiety, go through the above 4 steps, identify and acknowledge the feelings, get out of your head and move into action!
Thank you so much for reading along with me today 🙂
If you are read to move forward in your business, our Leadership Coach, Karen, is getting together with a few people on Tuesday, December 4th at 10:00am PT/1:00 pm ET to talk about how to make closing a more enjoyable process for you and your customers. You can join by registering at emergesalestraining.com/freeclosing, or click the button at the bottom of the page.
Have a great day!