How to Overcome Feeling Overwhelmed

Throughout this journey of personal development, there will be times when we hit rough patches. There are so many different goals we want to achieve and so many different processes we have begun to improve ourselves. This can be an exciting new challenge to embrace, and the pure adrenaline of excitement may be enough to get you started. However, once the initial excitement wears off, it can become a lot. From all this, you may begin to feel overwhelmed.

Feeling Overwhelmed

It is very normal to feel overwhelmed. After all, we are making huge commitments to ourselves when embarking on the journey of personal development. Commitments not to just be a better person, but to take direct and proactive action. This can mean volunteer and community work, taking better care of your physical health, or even just reading more (as is one of my goals for 2021). It can either be one major focus or a bunch of smaller ones. It will be different for everyone, but still, everyone will share this same feeling at some point. And when we feel overwhelmed, guess what usually happens?

We get nothing done.

Instead of doing just one or two of our many tasks, we end up doing zero. This happens to even the best of us. If you have fallen off from your usual routine in the past you will know how difficult it can be to get back on track. Or maybe you are currently experiencing this now, in which case you are reading this at the perfect time! Here are some things you can do to get back on track:

Focus on Your To-Do List

Writing everything down you need to accomplish on a to-do list is a great way to combat being overwhelmed. There are many different ways you can format your to-do list.

In the past, I’ve talked about splitting your tasks into 4 categories. A way to incorporate this from your to-do list is to put the 4 categories from most to least important: A, B, C, and D.

Category A are the things you need to get done right away that will significantly impact your life.

Category B are the things that are important, but you can do after Category A is complete.

Category C needs to get done, but are not as important tasks as A or B.

Category D are things that will be nice to do, but you can hold off on until the more important tasks are done.

Make sure to also have a Category E (for Everyday) which includes your daily tasks in addition to the four aforementioned categories. (ex: Meditate, Work 9 am-5 pm, Go to the gym, Read at night, Etc.)

This will allow you to write out everything you need to get done, which will give you a better idea of what to prioritize and how to organize your schedule moving forward.

Set Realistic Expectations

If you have fallen behind in your work, you won’t be able to accomplish everything in one night. The harsh truth about this is that it means you aren’t as far along as you would have been had you kept up. This is why consistency is an amazing characteristic to have.

That’s totally fine, though.

Understand that it will take you a few days, or even weeks, to get back into the swing of things. You will need to find time again to fit certain things into your routine. Don’t overload yourself and try to get everything accomplished at once, or you will once again feel overwhelmed and set yourself to for failure. Instead, take it one step at a time and be realistic about what you can accomplish today and what you can leave for tomorrow.

Acknowledge That It’s Okay!

One of my favorite things in the world to say is:

That’s totally fine.

It is totally fine to feel overwhelmed. It is totally fine to fall off from your routine or take a pause from your journey of personal development. It is also totally fine to feel upset about all of this.

As humans, we will hit rough patches and make mistakes. It is a part of life. Acknowledging not only that this happens, but that it is ok that it happens will help you move forward. No matter how minor or major the setback is, you can still pick yourself up and keep on truckin’.

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Have you had a setback lately? How were you able to pick yourself up from it? If you need help, you can reach out to me for free advice at eric@ericgolban.com

Best,

Eric