{"id":79488,"date":"2020-02-25T20:25:11","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=79488"},"modified":"2020-02-25T20:32:10","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T04:32:10","slug":"feeling-overwhelmed-join-the-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/feeling-overwhelmed-join-the-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Overwhelmed? Self-help author Paul Boynton says, \u201cJoin the Club!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

As founder of the BEGIN WITH YES Facebook community with over two million followers and\nthe author of several motivational books including my newest book, BE AMAZING, people\nautomatically assume I have everything well under control. After all, I\u2019m the expert! There\u2019s no\nway I could ever feel overwhelmed, or \u2018stuck\u2019 or even the slightest bit stressed or off-kilter. I\nmust meet my personal goals with ease and my dreams materialize with little or no effort.\nUnderstandably, people who are struggling mightily would welcome any and all easy answers\nfrom the motivational gurus of the universe who promise to lay out the roadmap to easily\novercome life\u2019s most challenging hurdles.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that\u2019s what you\u2019re looking for in a mentor or self-help soldier, I hate to break it to you. That\u2019s\ncertainly not <\/em>my life and it\u2019s definitely not <\/em>my day-to-day reality. Sure, if I had that magic bullet\nthat would solve all the world\u2019s problems, it would definitely help my book sales! But it just\nwouldn\u2019t be the truth and let\u2019s face it – that\u2019s no help to either one of us. That being said,\nbecause I know what \u2018overwhelming\u2019 feels like and because it\u2019s been a part of my life for as\nlong as I can remember, I have learned some fairly easy strategies to get beyond it that I believe\nwill work for you too.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, first of all, join the club. <\/em>You\u2019re in good company! Acknowledging that things are on pause\n<\/em>for you is a great place to begin the process of getting unstuck. The pause actually tells us that\nyou have places you want to go and things you want to accomplish and I, for one, think that\u2019s\nvery good news.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that good news, let me share a few easy suggestions that will help and some\nattainable steps you can take to get the train running and back on-track again.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTake a deep breath and acknowledge you\u2019re feeling stuck or overwhelmed. I like to\nremind myself that a GPS or navigation app on our phones can only help us get to a\ndesired destination when first we establish a clear starting place. And your starting place\nis exactly where you are right now: overwhelmed<\/em>.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
  2. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow would be a good time to remember that feeling overwhelmed is a common feeling\nand especially so for folks who have things – often many things – they want to get done\nand many dreams they hope to make happen. That\u2019s good news, so be sure to own\nwhat your mission is and then take another deep breath. And after that last calming\nbreath, acknowledge that feeling overwhelmed is just that…a feeling<\/em>. And because\noverwhelmed is just a feeling rather than an actual place, we can relax even more\nbecause feelings, after all, come and go, and this too, will pass.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
  3. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI have learned that it\u2019s perfectly okay to sit for a while with the feelings we have. You do\nnot have to solve or resolve that emotional traffic jam today. It\u2019s important to keep it in\nperspective because you certainly don\u2019t need the added pressure of trying to find a\nquick-fix. This will only accentuate your anxiety and exacerbate your frustration! So, cut\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    yourself some slack, and stop trying to push your way through it! Let it ebb and flow all\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    on its own.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow divert your attention to something more mundane. Make the bed, clean out that\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpesky junk drawer, take your dog for a walk, or meet a friend for a movie or coffee. Stop\ntrying to make something big happen and instead, just do something small and easy for\nright now.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
    2. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen you\u2019ve caught your breath for a moment, try to make a list of all the things you\nare trying to tackle at once. It could be a short list or a long one, but you\u2019ll soon see that\ntrying to do too much at once is a sure-fire way to short-circuit progress.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
    3. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow it\u2019s time to get focused. Choose one primary goal from your master list. Maybe it\u2019s\nlearning how to speak a new language or how to get a new job or write a book or make\na move to a brand-new town. Make this your temporary focus. I totally understand that\nyou have a lot of competing things that must get done or that you want to accomplish,\nbut if you try to bake a cake WHILE folding the laundry AND driving to work…well, you\nget the point. Feeling overwhelmed soon dissipates when you learn to manage or\nregulate what you\u2019re trying to accomplish. One-thing-at-a-time works much better than\na-million-things-at-once.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
    4. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNow ask yourself, \u201cWhat\u2019s a small, realistic step I can actually take right now to make\nprogress on whatever goal I\u2019m focused on?\u201d Then take that one, small step. Suddenly\nyou\u2019ll realize you\u2019re moving again! And if it feels right, take another small step, and even\nanother.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>
    5. \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThen, depending on what\u2019s on your plate, turn your attention to another reasonable\ngoal and repeat the same \u201cthink of a small step and take it\u201d process. Now you\u2019re\nactually making some real progress! Soon you will happily discover that the cake will get\nbaked, the laundry will get folded and the drive to work can all happen – just not all at\nonce.\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Feeling overwhelmed is just like an emotional traffic jam. But with the right strategies in place,\nyou\u2019ll be able to implement some simple traffic controls and rewire your GPS to help you move\nforward in a logical, reasonable and manageable way.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Take it easy, be gentle with yourself, take plenty of breaths and don\u2019t presume you\u2019ll be able to learn that new language in a single day. Instead celebrate learning a new phrase or two, and then get started on that cake! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n\n\n\n

      Paul S. Boynton\u00a0<\/strong>is the author of several books including Amazon bestseller\u00a0Begin with Yes, around which he has built an extraordinarily engaged audience of over two million followers. A true force of nature and popular keynote speaker, Paul is also President and CEO of The Moore Center, an organization serving people with intellectual disabilities. His writing has frequently been featured in the\u00a0Huffington Post, the\u00a0NH Business Review\u00a0and\u00a0The Good Men’s Project. Paul has degrees in both social work and counseling. He lives with his partner, and their dog Toby in New Hampshire, and spends much of his free time visiting his three adult children and their families. Paul\u2019s latest book,\u00a0Be Amazing, is available online at\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>,\u00a0Barnes&Noble.com<\/a>, and\u00a0IndieBound.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      As founder of the BEGIN WITH YES Facebook community with over two million followers and the author of several motivational books including my newest book, BE AMAZING, people automatically assume I have everything well under control. After all, I\u2019m the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":79489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3709,21,7748,31,39],"tags":[1743,7761,2025,66,7760],"yoast_head":"\nFeeling Overwhelmed? 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