Welcome to Happy Productive Episode #2 where we dive into Overwhelm – so you can eliminate it from your life – forever.
Overwhelm can feel like you have so much on your plate you don’t know what to do next, or no matter what you do you’ll disappoint someone.
It’s a terrible feeling and in a recent Gallop study they found 55% of Americans are stressed out and overwhelmed during their day. That’s 20% higher than the world average of 35%.
When we are going through our day overwhelmed we don’t think as clearly, we are not as productive as we could be, we make more mistakes, having to re-do work because we didn’t have the time to really think through it, that causes us to experience more negative emotions like disappointment, frustration, and shame, then all of that robs us of our happiness, health, and well being.
That’s why I feel it’s so important to start understanding overwhelm for what it truly is – and that may surprise you a bit. I know it was somewhat mind blowing for me when I first learned the truth about it.
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WHAT YOU WILL DISCOVER
What is overwhelm and what does it mean to feel this way
What causes you to feel overwhelmed
How do you deal with overwhelm so it doesn’t come back
The core of overwhelm and how to heal it for good
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Episode No. 2 of Happy Productive. And today we’ll be talking about Overwhelm.
I’m in the process right now of creating a new workshop called “Making Your Goals Inevitable”. And while I was creating the content for this workshop, the topic of overwhelm came up because how many of us have gotten stressed out and overwhelmed trying desperately to achieve a goal. How many of us have lived that every day. I know, I certainly have.
In the workshop, I’m not teaching the same old goal-setting systems which honestly tend to set us up for a lot of failure or heartbreak, and sacrifice. And by sacrifice I mean giving up something in your life— like time with your family or your health to achieve a goal. Instead, we must relearn a different approach that eliminates the frustration and overwhelm of achieving goals. And really, what is the point, right? Of our goals if not to improve our life and our family’s lives?
The good news is, if I can learn a better way of doing things, so can you! And we can do it in a way that’s fun and literally makes your success inevitable. I love that word inevitable.
If you want more information, just visit either of my websites bestplannerever.com or jenniferdawncoaching.com and click “Workshops” in the Menu bar for more information or to sign up.
Now, Let’s say that you’re interested in learning a fun, easy way to achieve your goals where success is inevitable. Or anything else that might be going on in your life right now that you really want to do.
But you don’t sign up. Why?
Because you’ve already got so much on your plate you can’t even think about adding one more thing. It’s that yucky feeling of being overwhelmed, stressed out, stretched thin, at the end of the—your rope, right? And it kind of sucks.
So that’s the topic of today’s lesson. Overwhelm can feel like you have so much on your plate, and you just don’t know what to do next. Or it might feel like no matter what you do, you’re going to disappoint someone. It’s a terrible feeling. And in a recent Gallup study, they found 55% of Americans are stressed out and overwhelmed during their day. That’s 20% higher than the world the world average of 35%.
When we’re going through our day, overwhelmed, here’s what happens. We don’t think as clearly, we’re not as productive as we could be. We make more mistakes, having to redo work, because we didn’t have the time to really think through it. That causes us to experience more negative emotions like disappointment, frustration and shame. Then all of that robs us of our happiness, health and wellbeing. That’s why I feel like it’s so important to start understanding overwhelm for what it truly is.
And that may surprise you a bit. I know it was somewhat mind blowing for me when I first learned the truth about it— the real truth.
Now overwhelm can happen, when we don’t know how to say no, when we’re worried about what others are going to think about us, when we fear the future. So we just keep taking action to the point of exhaustion, or when our emotions get the best of us, because we’ve just not been taught how to process them.
Overwhelm can leave us with that feeling that there’s just no space for us and no way out. But here’s the deal. All of those things, the never saying “no” to feeling guilty. Those are just symptoms of overwhelm. They’re not the real problem. The real issue goes much deeper, because here’s the real truth.
So are you ready for the real mind-blowing truth?
Overwhelm is a belief system we’ve bought into. It’s a choice we’re making based on a belief we think is true. But it’s not. If you want to stop feeling overwhelmed, like for good forever, you’ll need to see overwhelm for the live that it is and make a different choice in your belief system.
The truth is, you never have to be overwhelmed if you don’t choose to be. I know, when I first heard that I was like—what? Like, for real? And it’s the truth.
You do not have to be overwhelmed or stressed out anymore if you don’t choose to be. The problem here is that we’ve been taught this belief is true.
Often, this happens from the time we’re young children and we just don’t know any better. If you grew up in a family where your parents maybe worked multiple jobs. I certainly did. They didn’t have time for you because they were so busy and overwhelmed. You could have easily picked up the belief that this is just how adults are supposed to be. Or maybe your belief is that people like you more if you don’t say “no”. So because you can’t say “no” you take on too much and keep yourself in a constant state of overwhelm.
Well, it still goes back to your core belief of what you believe is true. Or maybe if you stop working so hard, you’ll have the time to actually think about the things in your life that you don’t like. And maybe, you just don’t want to deal with them. So you keep yourself on this hamster wheel and always stay overwhelmed. And it becomes an excuse not to change— not to deal with these difficult things in life that we don’t want to deal with.
If you really want to stop working in a state of overwhelm and stress, and instead work in a state of happy, productive— you’re going to need to see this for the total bullshit lie that it is.
Here’s the good part. When you understand that this is just something you’ve bought into, you’ll also realize that you can change it by simply having a new belief. And your new belief is going to make you to think differently about overwhelm. And when you think differently, you’re going to feel different. When you feel different, you’ll act different. And when you take a different action, you’ll start getting a different result.
You see the beauty of this? It really is a beautiful thing.
By doing the work to identify, understand, and change a belief that’s keeping you in a negative pattern, you can literally affect radical change in your life.
Here’s the deal. It comes from the core belief. It’s not by willpower, or force, or by beating yourself up. You can get short term results with those tactics but that’s not where the permanent change comes from. It happens when you change the core belief system which is driving all your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Here’s the even better part. You ready?
Let’s think about for a moment of your life without overwhelm, okay? Just for a moment. Take a deep breath. And let’s just imagine.
Now, like, if you’ve ever seen a news story about somebody who’s really successful and they’re sunning themselves on a tropical desert island. Maybe they’re playing in the ocean. They don’t have any worries because they’re doing this work that they love. They’re living life to the fullest. They’re enjoying a life without overwhelm.
I know that when I used to see those people, I’d be a little jealous and just be a little bit of a hater. Like, argh, why do they have something that I don’t have? But that’s what I’m talking about. And you can have this too.
But, the first step is being able to actually imagine it’s possible, okay?
And so, let’s imagine for a moment that your version (of the things that you can have too) might include you being relaxed, being without worry. It might include you showing up in your work refreshed, energized, eager to help, and make a contribution to the world. Maybe you show up in your family with your kids, or with your friends. And when you’re showing up, you’re filled with love and compassion.
Because when you eliminate overwhelm and stress from your life, it makes space for things like quiet, love, and gratitude. These are the things which just get pushed aside when we’re just too overwhelmed to think about them.
Imagine yourself without overwhelm in your life. I don’t know about you, but that’s the kind of life I definitely want.
So today, I want to present you with a little challenge to get you closer to that vision. That beautiful picture of your life without any overwhelm. I want you to take a look, a nonjudgmental look. This is not about judgment or shame, or beating yourself up. We’re going to throw that out the window, okay?
Instead just take an honest look at the stress and overwhelm happening in your daily life. Sometimes an easy way for me to do this is I imagine that I’m like, watching my life like a movie on a screen. We all watch plenty of screens these days, right? And when you’re watching somebody else’s life on a screen, it’s easy to be like, “Oh, that’s where he or she is going wrong.” Okay, so we can do this for ourselves, too.
If you need to— take a step back. Just look at your life as if you’re watching it as an observer on a screen. And start asking yourself these questions.
Is this a BS lie that I bought into— that I have to work in this state?
Or that I have to feel stressed and overwhelmed as I go through my day?
If I was going to replace this lie with my personal truth, and it is about our own personal truth, how do you want to work? How do you want to feel each day?
I’m curious, what belief system would you replace it with?
Whatever you’re doing now, what belief system would you replace it with? Would it be the same as what you’re doing now? Or would it be different?
If it was different? Would it be something like— “I absolutely never put myself in a state of overwhelm”, or saying “No, makes me a better, happier person. Stress doesn’t touch me, ever”. Maybe your belief system would be “because my day is organized I have plenty of time for everything.” Or “I have absolute control over how I spend my time and how I want to feel each day. I don’t buy in to the lie of overwhelm. I choose to live each day, and ease and flow.”
What belief system from right now forward would you choose to buy into?
Remember, overwhelm is nothing more than a belief system we’ve learned. And if it’s something we’ve learned, we can relearn it, or we can change it. It’s just been taught to us through the examples that we’ve seen— from our parents, our family, our friends, and our peers. But that doesn’t mean that has to be our truth forever.
We can choose to see overwhelm for what it really is. A crappy feeling, a horrible state of being where we perform it far less than our capability and potential. And we can eliminate it by making the choice to believe something better.
When I first heard this concept, it really blew my mind, you guys! I had to really like, think about it for a while. And then I stopped buying into it and I changed my entire way of doing things. It has made all the difference in how I show up in my business, and how I show up in my life.
And I just have to tell you, like there’s so much joy when you show up energized, and you show up refreshed. And you show up ready to make a contribution, you show up ready to be an excellent parent, you show up for your own health, your nutrition, your fitness, you show up for yourself, you show up for your people.
But before I could do any of that, I had to believe it was possible. I had to change that core belief for myself because I didn’t want overwhelming stress anymore in my daily life. I wanted that joy. I wanted the ease. I wanted to flow. And when I started to believe it was possible, it became my reality. And that’s what I wanted for myself. And truly, that’s what I want from my loved ones. And that’s what I want for each and every one of you too.
Okay.
That’s our lesson for today. I hope you enjoyed it. And I really encourage you to take some time to think about how this could apply in your daily life.
If you enjoyed this, I also want to invite you to come check out Goal Achievers. This is my monthly coaching program where we take all this material and apply it to our lives. We dive deep into one life topic, just one, each month. And focus on it just so that the process isn’t overwhelming. And you can take fun, small, almost like micro-fun small steps towards your ideal self. And all those little steps they build and they compound upon each other, each and every month.
You can learn more, again at either of my websites bestplannerever.com or jenniferdawncoaching.com.
Thanks so much, you guys for being here with me today. Now go out there and have a super happy, productive day!