7 Ways to Beat Overwhelm Inch by Inch

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and daunted by the sheer enormity of a task you need to do??Or even like you're drowning in a sea of tasks, and you can't see which one to do first?

In our fast changing world, feeling stressed and overwhelmed by never ending to-do lists is a common scenario, especially when it comes to our worklives.

This used to be me; and I'd feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, a heavy weight on my shoulders and a sense of exhaustion and despair.?This was especially true in the early days of starting my business. I'd moan about hard everything was, how everything I needed to do meant I had to learn YET MORE THINGS and I couldn't learn fast enough!?AARGH!!?

My brain felt like it was going to explode trying to figure things out.?It made me question my abilities - surely other successful business owners didn't have this problem; they must just be good at everything, or sprung out the ground, a fully formed successful entrepeneur!

But over time I came learn the truth; that noone is great at everything. And certainly not at the start. Everyone is a beginner and has to learn new skills at some point.??

When we're in a state of overwhelm, we literally can't think straight, or access our imagination or creativity.??

So we have to calm ourselves down and then break things down to be more manageable, inch by inch if needs be.

Here's what I do now:

1) Breathe - I take a few minutes to take several deep breaths, with the exhale being longer than the inhale.?Or I'll imagine breathing in going up my back then breathing out going down my front.?Breathing is one of the easiest ways to calm ourselves down because taking deep breaths tells our parasympathetic nervous system we are not under threat. Just focusing on your breath can bring you back to the present moment and help you feel more grounded.

2) Brain Dump - I get everything out of my head, usually by writing things down, talking out loud to myself or someone else, or mindmapping.?Hearing my thoughts out loud or seeing them on paper helps me start to make sense of things as well as separate from my emotions.?I don't have to carry the thoughts around with me because they're now captured in front of me. It feels very cathartic to empty my mind.

3) Face your Fears -?Once my thoughts are out of my head I can zero in on, "What exactly is it that's overwhelming me? What specifically am I afraid of or resisting doing because I find it difficult??A particular task??Deciding what to do in what order? Not knowing how to do something?"?I'll also ask myself, "What's the worst that could happen??How would I deal with that?" Once we shine a light on the monsters under the bed (our worries) we tend to find they're nothing like as big as we imagined. Facing the worst case scenario and devising a plan to handle it feels hugely empowering too. And most of the time what we worry about never happens anyway!

4) Watch Your Language - We create our own reality by how we talk to ourselves. When we use words like 'always', 'never', 'difficult', 'impossible' or 'I can't' we close down possibility and feel stuck.?Contrast that with words like 'sometimes', 'yet', 'even though', 'I can', or ' I could try this...'.?Those words open up possibility, hope and our imagination. I make a concious effort to pay attention to my language and change the words I use so they help me vs dragging me down.

5) Reframe - a 'frame' is what we focus on that guides how we think and act.?One frame from NLP I like to use for managing overwhelm is to focus on the outcome I want vs the problem.?By focusing on what I DO want and zooming out to see the bigger picture ("Why am I doing this?") vs getting bogged down in all the details of the problem ("What's wrong or not working?"), I'm able to open more creative thinking to find solutions.?My mind gets to work on "How can I achieve something? What strengths or resources do I have? Who can help me??How would someone else look at this situation and what would they do?"??

6) Change the Map - NLP has a number of 'pre-suppositions' which are 'beliefs' we assume to be true. NLP models excellence so these 'pre-suppositions' are how other successful people think in order to achieve excellent results.?When I'm feeling overwhelmed and trying to see things from a different angle I remember 'The map is not the territory' ; everyone makes sense of the world in a different way, through their senses and personal experiences. That 'map' becomes our reality and therefore influences how we interpret things. So I'll ask myself, 'What am I making this mean?" 'How would (name, name or name) see this situation? What would they do?"?Thinking about this also helps me separate fact from fiction so I can then start to think more constructively about what I'm trying to do.

7) Break it Down - Another great pre-supposition is that 'Anything can be accomplished if the task is broken down into small enough steps'.?I love the famous quote "Inch by inch, life's a cinch, yard by yard, life is hard"; it's a great reminder that I just need to break it something down to feel calmer and more in control.

Time and again I've seen how breaking things down really helps to defeat overwhelm. Because when we don't know how to do things we often get stuck and procrastinate.?To start, I write down what it is I want my desired outcome or what I want/need to do. I'll then write out all the key things I know need to happen to achieve that; my sub-tasks.

Seeing that I DO know how to make a start encourages me.?I'll then look at which task feels like the best place to start and continue breaking that sub-task down even further.?This also helps me work out what it is I don't know, which I also capture as another sub-task. The next action for that task is to brainstorm - "How can I find out??Who can I talk to? Where could I find the information I need?"

Sometimes the tasks need to be done in a certain order, in which case I layout a timeline.?I can map out the order by either asking 'What's the next thing I need to find out?" then the next thing, then the next, putting them in sequence as I go.?Or I might work backwards, especially if I'm not sure of the next steps.?I'll take my desired outcome and ask, "What would need to happen/be in place for this to be achieved'"?Then I repeat the same question - and once I have the answer to the first question I'll ask myself "And what would need to happen for that to be achieved?"

I wish I could say that I never feel overwhelmed but that's just not true. Change is a journey, not a destination, we're never a finished product.?But I am getting better and better at managing overwhelm as I practise these strategies.?I can now recognise when I'm getting stuck and know what to do get myself unstuck.

I hope you find these 7 strategies to beat overwhelm useful and remember -?

"Inch by inch, life's a cinch, yard by yard, life is hard.