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My brain is just spinning and spinning. There’s just too much. Nothing is working. I don’t know where to start. I have so many ideas I just can’t get it all done fast enough!
Do any of these feelings sound familiar?
Or maybe you’re trying to do this 30 day challenge but are still numbly checking your phone or email every 5 minutes because you didn’t quite commit and you’re not quite ready or you have a great excuse why not to simply eliminate the temptation or behavior.
You’re not alone.
Trust me, I get it. This time of year is a crazy one and not for the same reasons as 4th quarter mania or 1st quarter planning. Spring is crazy because for most of us, we’re coming out of hibernation, business is starting to pick up alongside all this ‘planning’ and ‘strategy’ and ‘bettering our processes’ we’re trying to sneak in there. There’s just so much! Plus, we’re so desperate to make our revenue goals, we feel a tremendous amount of pressure to ‘get it right’ early in the year and set ourselves up for success later on.
Stop.
Maybe you’re feeling great and have tons of energy and excitement, but just have more to do than you accomplish – maybe you’re feeling low or listless for the same reason… Doesn’t matter, here’s how you’re going to get the most out of the rest of this month:
- Get sane.
- Get organized.
- Make a choice.
- Delegate where possible.
- Do.
1. Get Sane
The very best advice I have if you’re spinning and spinning, is to do one (or both) of two things:
- Do a ‘Brain Dump’ epic list / mind map
- Talk to someone who you know can help you get focus
This spin-cycle we get into is largely due to the fact that our tasks, obligations and deadlines FEEL HUGE. Oftentimes there is a lot, perhaps an unrealistic amount to accomplish, but this stuff always FEELS BIGGER than it is – so we put off trying to make sense of it – write it down or process it – because it’s taking up too much of our head and chest space to have the discipline to simply sit down and work through it systematically. It’s an emotional overwhelm and we’re looking for an emotional solution – but my friends, you probably already know the solution, and it’s super practical. You have got to get it out of of your head and onto paper or into a sensible conversation with someone who can help you sort through it (and hopefully even make you set deadlines, a priority order of things, and hold you accountable!) < Don’t forget your rewards when you hit the little milestones you set!
If you’re in this state, sit down with yourself, in a quiet place, and ask yourself one simple question, ‘what can I eliminate?’ Try to be as honest with yourself as possible. I can promise you the world isn’t going to end by you un-committing to something, pushing something back, asking someone else to take it on, or simply giving yourself permission to let it go or make it more simple.
2. Get Organized
We did a whole theme on this last year, including quizzing all of our experts on their top tips for productivity. This resource is jam-packed with ways to get organized, prioritize, and act. There are some great tips for the stuff I mentioned above in ‘get sane’ too.
My best advice here is to do what feels the best. You’re not in a moment to start some new habit you’ve never stuck to in the past, just do what works for you to get your thoughts organized and tasks prioritized so you can…
3. Make a Choice
This may be the hardest part of all. Seriously, we make about 35,000 desicions in a day – it’s exhausting – decision fatigue is a real thing! When you’re running around trying to be perfect at everything, your brain is maxed, your willpower is stretched, and it’s very likely that you’re going 100 miles an hour, multi-tasking, doing a lot of really great stuff, but feeling really unfulfilled because you have extremely unrealistic expectations for yourself. That manic state, where nothing is good enough, your self-care comes last, you’re comparing yourself to everyone around you and you’re generally overwhelmed, is a very tough one to feel like a solid decision maker. If this is you right now – here are some tips to help you.
4. Delegate
We did a whole theme on this one too! Yay! My favorite is the ‘finding & hiring your first VA’ Masterchat with Amanda our Digital Marketing guru. I expect the biggest obstacle here, is simply fear. The fear of finding someone, the fear of not knowing if you can trust them, the fear of letting go, the fear of can you afford them every month or the fear of ‘I might get them trained and then they might leave me’. All of these are legit fears, but the REALITY is that spinning over it and NOT acting, is probably costing you a lot more time, money and sanity than taking the leap and moving forward on finding someone to delegate to. Don’t rush it – but DO IT, in whatever way you can manage to talk yourself into 🙂
5. Do.*
Bottom line, nothing’s gonna get done if you don’t just start doing something. Act. Force yourself to start, even if you don’t know where it’s gonna end up! This is THE most important step. You don’t have to do it all – do ONE thing. Just one.
Now, if alllll of that just feels like too much right now, just force yourself to do #1, and then skip to #5 and DO something. You’re probably sick of me saying this, but the greatest cure for anxiety is action. Once you’ve started to actually explore the thing, or tackle the thing that feels too big, a crap load of the fear just fades away. It just disipates and often leaves a pretty excited, empowered energy in it’s place. Of course, if you need a ‘fear’ refresher, there are great articles about how to move through it here, here and here.
Also, if you’re finding during this challenge that you just generally need an energy or mood boost (by the time you’re reading this I’m sure I will – ughh moving, am I right?), check out this article for some ideas you can grab and implement right now. Start with that morning routine – be militant about locking that in place, then move on from there…
*As mentioned above, be sure you’re giving yourself rewards for reaching your milestones: no matter how big or small – positive reinforcement #ftw!
As always – pop on over to the Facebook Group and reach out – brag about your wins, tell us what you’re feeling, what you’re struggling with or what you’re excited about – let us help or celebrate with you!