The Thing You Never Want To Do When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed, And What to do Instead.

Overwhelmed quite possibly one of the biggest dream killers you ever come across. This emotion gives us so many excuses as to why we don’t need to do what needs to be done. Overwhelmed causes us to overthink and take very little action. 

Overwhelm is also one of those indulgent emotions that when we don’t pay attention will keep us playing small. Overwhelmed also incorporates confusion into the mix to really bug you down so you cannot achieve your dreams. We say things like I don’t know where to start. It’s just so much I don’t know where to begin. 

We look at the big picture and we allow overwhelm to take over. We see all the different steps that we need to make and it gives our brains the opportunity to come up with excuses. When it comes to the overwhelm we feel, it is important that we stop. So how do we get out of overwhelm? what is the one thing we should never do when feeling overwhelmed and how do we get ourselves out of that rut?

That’s what we’re gonna talk about today. How do you avoid overwhelm?

Stop Buffering

When we first start out, we’re gonna find ourselves mired in the muck of overwhelm and it’s because we see all that needs to be done and we haven’t taken any action yet. We stand around making plans thinking about all that needs to be done. We have all these different social media posts that we need to make. How do we get our social media following up? How do I get new clients? What is the next step I need to take? And we aren’t even sure what the first step is supposed to be.

So we find it easier to stop and find ways to buffer from the hard work that feels uncomfortable. Feeling Overwhelmed and confused are two ways to buffer. We also will buffer by doing activities that feel important but don’t fully get us closer to our objectives. Blog writing and social media posts fall into this category and I struggle to get beyond the useless activities and get to the activities that fully help us realize our aspirations.

How do we avoid all this overwhelm?

The secret to avoiding overwhelm is to stop being overwhelmed. Now that sounds hokey, I understand, but we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed and to feel other indulgent emotions. These emotions and useless actions keep us from facing the discomfort of what actually needs to be done. To stop overwhelm we have to stop overthinking the process. Getting lost in points that we haven’t even begun to approach is useless. It doesn’t help us at the moment. It only helps us to stay in overwhelm even more.

Our brains want us to be overwhelmed. This is because when we are overwhelmed, we’re more willing to stay safe in our cave. Watching Netflix, eating popcorn and not venturing out doing something scary. We aren’t talking to strangers and making asks. We are just vegging out and not worrying about what our next step is going to be.

OVerwhelm also doesn’t serve us in the fact that we beat ourselves up because we know we need to be doing something. We fight with ourselves and sometimes get downright mean with ourselves all because we are fighting overwhelm. Following our dreams is scary. Therefore, our minds want us to stay safe. To do that our beautiful mind directs us to overwhelm. It basically believes it is better to be overwhelmed than to go do the hard work so you can live comfortably later. You have no defense for why you didn’t take any action when you don’t know what to do. Yet you actually know what you need to do next. Even if it is wrong.

Take action

To avoid overwhelm utilize one of the best tools out there. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and start writing. Make out a list of everything you need to do everything you think of. Write it all down on a list of your lists if you need to. Lists get the to-dos out of your head. It frees up your mind for actual thinking instead of using your mind for a storage device. Our brains suck at remembering. So when you write something down you get it on paper so your mind doesn’t have an excuse as to why it is confused. You can then see everything you need and want to do. So the next big step is to choose something and do it.

When you write down the steps that you need to take, you can then start taking them. As you take each step, you can mark a line through that step, and you are then closer to your objective. Your action is the cure for your lack of action. You drive confusion away when you make a choice. It doesn’t have to be right. It just needs to be done. If the choice is wrong then you will learn from that action make the needed changes and go again from a slightly different angle.

Once you have all of your steps and to-do’s created, then it’s time for the work. This gets you further down the road. Above anything else you could do. Taking action is what makes you successful every time. When you take action you’re doing what nobody else will do. You find freedom in taking action, you’re making strides ahead of those other guys who wish they could get started. The key to getting your dreams fulfilled is the action. The list just helps you order and see your thoughts. It allows you to see what needs to be done. Action is the jerking of the wheel so you get out of the rut. When out of the rut you then can go even faster.

If you are furious as to what that action looks like and tired of being overwhelmed then take the next step and let’s see how far you get down the road.