October 15th, 2009 | 
Author: Overwhelm. It’s everywhere these days. It’s one of the top stumbling blocks to success and one of the biggest issues my new clients come to me with.
Ready to get rid of overwhelm?
Honestly, I have had a pretty intimate relationship with overwhelm myself. For instance, I remember the time early in my coaching business where I found myself standing in the hallway between the office and the kitchen. I had gone back and forth 4 times and couldn’t remember why. I couldn’t even remember if I wanted to be in the kitchen or the office.
Today, I can look back at myself as an overwhelmed newbie with compassion. I can tell that story with a smile on my face and see how I have grown. I appreciate that I haven’t felt that kind of overwhelm for a long time.
In a session with a client recently, she started at an overwhelm level of 9 on a ten point scale. Thanks to EFT and a priority setting exercise, she was feeling “clear and great” by the end of the session. Her overwhelm feeling was almost gone and she was excited to move forward with the energy of clarity.
Then she asked me, “Paul, how did do you get rid of overwhelm – for good?”
Her question got me thinking about the journey from Overwhelmics Anonymous candidate to being able to maintain more positive emotional states over time. In addition to my own experience, I thought about the experience of successful coaches I know – like Jen Blackert, Chip Engelmann, Jeanette Maw and Gurutej who took part in last weeks Spiritual Tools that WORK series.
The truth is that successful people don’t feel overwhelmed very often. Why? Do successful people have a overwhelm resistance strand on their DNA? Are they born without the capacity to feel overwhelm? Of course not.
As I explored what’s common about the successful people I know, I saw that there are 3 things that successful people know how to do that prevents them from getting stuck in overwhelm. I’d like to share with you the 3 Keys to Saying Goodbye to Overwhelm- For Good:
- Create positive thoughts – on a daily basis. Bill Baren is an executive and life coach whose business is so full that he has hired 4 other coaches to keep up with demand. When asked about his secret to success, Bill says it’s daily journaling. Each day he writes about what he appreciates about his clients and what he’s learned. He says it keeps his attitude exceptionally positive. My Mastermind partner, Sejual Shah uses EFT and attraction principles in the same manner. While the tools may differ, successful people take responsibility for creating positive thoughts and a focused mind on a daily basis.
- Cultivate a service mindset. Susan Evans is the founder of Helpingpreneur.com. She has built a $250,000 per year business on the foundation of helping business owners help more people. When you make a deeper commitment to service, you will start to see ways to leverage your knowledge to help more people. Three examples of how my clients are doing this: blogging, creating products, and offering group programs. When you help more people, you feel better and your income naturally rises.
- Develop a success team. Successful people know the value of a support network. From Mastermind groups to online communities to individual coaching, there are support options for people at every level of the process. There is a direct relationship between feelings of overwhelm and disconnect. If you are regularly feeling overwhelmed, I invite you to increase the amount of support you have for your goals.
Though they seem simple, these three strategies will help you say goodbye to overwhelm – for good. Try making a commitment to practice these three steps for one month. I’d love to hear what happens for you.
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Great points as usual, Paul. It seems to me there is another strategy to add to the wonderful “Success Team” list — and that is contracting for help in areas of our business that have to be done, but that drain us or that we aren’t good at or both. This is my current growing edge — I know I CAN learn how to do something new or that I am “good enough” at some ongoing task, but they don’t feed me. And overwhelming myself with these tasks reduces the creative, positive energy I have for the service I really value.
Great point yourself Lee Ann. The technical name for this is “outsourcing”. As you so eloquently state, intelligent outsourcing allows us to focus our creative energy on what we are good at instead of struggling with something that isn’t a good fit for us. My sanity and my business have greatly benefited from outsourcing.
Accepting oneself for not being good at everything is a huge step toward personal freedom. Once we move past this hang-up we can soar in our professional life and not be held back by our constant apologies.
Thank you Paul,
I will certainly put these three principles into action immediately. This is an area I constantly struggle with and I find myself stuck, unable to make the required decisions which would help me move forward. The result is always the same, I go round in circles and never seem to achieve much!
I will keep you posted as the month progresses!
Mairi
What a timely blog topic! Overwhelm is something I’m dealing with on a daily basis and so are most of the people I know who own their own business. I have so many wonderful projects I’m working on but I can’t seem to focus long enough to complete a project from beginning to end. Scattered would be the accurate term! Thank you for your help today with this blog.
Paul, to your excellent list I would add “Redefine your relationship with time.” This is one I’ve been focusing on lately and it has done an enormous amount to reduce my feelings of overwhelm. Most of us run around saying “I just don’t have enough time to _______ “. Well, guess what – LOA in action
Whenever I catch myself in overwhelm mode, I remind myself “I have plenty of time to do everything I need and want to do.” There is an *AWESOME* chapter in Gay Hendricks’ latest book _The Big Leap_ called “Einstein Time” – the whole book is great; this chapter alone makes it a life-changer! In a nutshell, YOU create YOUR OWN time – so you can always choose to create plenty for whatever it is you want to do 
This is indeed very timely. Thank you. I’ve been working with college aged people who are overwhelmed. Also, the way the economy has a lot of people overwhelmed. Thank you again for more tools to help.
Margie: Absolutely! Don’t you just love how business can be such a catalyst of personal and spiritual growth? And as we grow, we can succeed more in business.
Mairi: YW. I’m glad this is helpful. As I say in the post, I have quite a history with struggle and stuckness. Please do keep us updated.
Stacey: Glad this is helpful. Scattered with wonderful projects is actually a great place to be. In this case, see if you can use the tools suggest in the post to increase your ability to focus. For instance, write about how good it feels to have such wonderful projects. Appreciate them and then explore how good it feels when you start to focus on one project. Appreciate the progress you make. And when you do complete one – appreciate the heck out of it.
Karen: Are you adding to my reading list again? LOL. Great points Karen. How we relate to time has ripple effects to everything we do. Advanced concept for some but one well worth exploring. I’ve been enjoying a very spacious relationship with time lately and have been making some different decisions from that place. For instance, I’m moving in the direction of doing more group work – much higher leveraging of my time than individual work.
Gracie: YW. Yes, there certainly are a LOT of overwhelmed humans these days ..
C’mon Paul – you know it’s one of my personal missions in life to make sure your reading list is never-ending .
LOL Karen. You rock!
It’s taken me ’til today, three weeks after your post, Paul, to read it, as I have been working my way through my in box and happily unsubscribing from lots of great things to make room for the several ones I really do want to focus on, like your mailings.
I have been finding that making peace with the idea of NOT trying to do it all, read it all, learn it all has made a big difference to me in lowering my overwhelm level.
I’m reminded of a day I spent in the fabulous Art Institute in Chicago. I was delighted and awed by the wonderful art, spending hours drinking in the images until, overwhelmed by so much input I ended up literally rushing past a gallery of Rembrandts, shocked by the idea that I was passing them by but literally unable to take in any more.
Everyday in my inbox, among my great friends on Facebook, contacts on Twitter and other wonderful sources, like most of us, I am offered a truly magnificent assortment of knowledge, art, community and ideas. After a while of finding it enormously overwhelming I relaxed and saw it as a way to become clear about my values, needs and intentions.
I’ve decided to focus on clarity of intention, joyfulness and positivity–and allow law of attraction to bring me the things I need.
Well said Nili! Love the idea that we can relax and trust that the information and resources we need will come our way. Thanks for the reminder of this practical LOA tip.
I had to read your post three times to get the full meaning of it. I appreciate reading what you have to say. It’s unfortunate that more people do not understand the benefits of coaching. Keep up the good work.
Hi Julia,
Thanks for offering your thoughts and glad the post was thought proving. In my mind, the fact that many people don’t yet understand the full value of coaching is a wonderful opportunity! BTW, I recently got to meet the famous K2 and learn a bit about the Golden Flow System. Great stuff!