Stop Overwhelm Now
Tick-tock, tick-tock...
I thought I’d post a question I found on LinkedIn Answers recently as not only is it a common issue we deal with as business owners and professionals, but it’s one of the most challenging to deal with:
“We all know a disciplined lifestyle helps us be more productive, effective and successful… but with so many things on our plate, staying up late, skipping breakfast, missing family events, falling behind our targets; this all becomes inevitable more often than we would like. What are you doing to discipline yourself…what are you doing to keep yourself motivated to stay in that disciplined lifestyle?”
As a coach, not only do I see this in clients, but I experience it as well. We are all constantly taking on more than we can likely handle and we know it’s destructive. Yet we don’t stop.
So what is it that keeps us going, going and going? I invite you to consider it’s the LACK of the following three characteristics.
Leadership Practices:
1) Commitment – Ask yourself “What am I really committed to?” If you’re consistently late or behind on projects, are you more committed to being late (therefore being “right” about how busy you are) or are you more committed to reaching your goal? Sometimes an unpleasant question, but one that will get you back on track.
2) Compassion – I see busy people get even busier because they beat the pulp out of themselves for not completing the previous task (and so on). They punish and make themselves wrong thereby adding stress to the situation which is a consistent obstacle in itself. Here’s a practice I give my “busy” clients = practice declaring the day complete every evening whether you’ve finished everything or not. Carrying incompletion into the next day is a sure-fire way to drown.
3) Courage – Be willing to say “no”. We are bombarded by requests and demands every day. Most of us grow up with a disempowering interpretation of the word “no”… of course we would, Mom and Dad told us “no” all the time growing up. So as adults one of the best ways for us to avoid that word is to say “yes”. Uh-oh, now we’re in trouble as we’ve committed to far more than we can handle. Practice saying “no”. Start with some small things/events then move to bigger ones. You’ll be surprised… the world will continue spinning. “-)
Taking a leadership role with our time doesn’t require a PhD or engineering background. Several basic and familiar structures will do the trick every time.
Happy C’s,
-Coach Preston
