Is feeling stressed and overwhelmed with work, or life in general, something you often deal with? Do you feel like you’re getting behind on tasks, burdened with obligations that you need to catch up on, or feel like you’re not doing enough to support your clients? I hope you realize that you are not alone.
You’re in the right place! I will be sharing the steps to relieving overwhelm, so you can keep calm and carry on with your recreation programs.
Think of the time you were tidying up your messy closet. And as you look over the sea of clothing, you don’t know where to begin. You find yourself spending so much time deciding on where to start instead of taking action. Now ask yourself, how did it become disorderly in the first place? Before you clean up your closet, you need to identify what’s causing the clutter.
You once committed to making your closet organized. But as time goes by, your closet went from clutter-free to messy. And now you feel overwhelmed because you failed on your commitment. Ask yourself why? It could be because you’re not storing your clothes properly, you bought too many clothes and just toss them around.
Circumstances like these, where you fail to follow through your commitments, are steps towards feeling overwhelmed. We made commitments at a certain point, to ourselves and our clients, yet failed to follow through because of distractions, over committing, conflicts, and unexpected turn of events. But what truly matters is how we choose to react to these situations and what we make out of it: Do you give in to the stress and breakdown and continue to overcommit? Or do you reflect, stay focused, and carry on?
Here are some tips on how to effectively eliminate overwhelm:
BE MINDFUL IN YOUR COMMITMENT
When things start to unravel for you emotionally, it affects your ability to think rationally and hinders you from accomplishing your plans. Your mind is not in a good state to do your best for yourself and your clients. Stop grinding for more and burying yourself with too much work. Recognize when you are stuck, paralyzed, and stressed over daily tasks and responsibilities.
BE PRESENT IN THE MOMENT
The key to being mindful is to be present in the moment. If the feelings of overwhelm arise, focus on being present, and never under-estimate its power. Reliving the failures of the past and worrying about your to-do list or a big event coming up will do nothing but contribute to your overwhelm. I know this is inevitable, we cannot stop ourselves thinking about the past and future. It’s okay! Nothing is wrong with that. But by practising being present, you don’t necessarily do more, but you get more things done.
BE REALISTIC WITH YOUR COMMITMENTS
If you are going to miss a deadline, for instance, inform those who will be affected by it and set a new date that is realistic and possible. You have to be clear and be realistic with others and yourself. Consider the time, health, current situation, financial abilities, and expectations. Doing this sets achievable goals and you’ll feel less overwhelmed and burned-out. It also helps explain to others exactly what your plans are for achieving or not achieving that request. If you tell someone “I can get to that in 4 weeks”, they will have a greater expectation of when it will be done and can begin to understand your workload. If they ask for it immediately, ask which commitments you should sacrifice.
BE HONORABLE WITH YOUR WORDS
Honouring your commitments and promises, whether big or small, will get clients to honour you back. However, it’s sometimes a challenge to do what we say we’ll do. We want to help our clients, make meaningful and engaging activities for them, or transform their lives. That’s why being realistic and conscious of all your commitments play a huge part in this. Practice this to relieve feeling overwhelmed.
There’s ALWAYS something that needs to be done, it’s a never-ending checklist.
The purpose of these tips isn’t to help you check the items off your list, but to help you start feeling less overwhelmed and eliminate the stress in life. You took this career to forge better lives for your clients and yourself.
Overwhelm is part of the process, but it doesn’t have to be part of you.