Greetings and welcome to this week's edition of my
newsletter.
Overwhelmed by too much to do?
One of
our ego’s favorite tactics for tricking us back into the old box is to put
us into overwhelm every time our “to do” list gets longer. When inundated
with things that must be done NOW, our ego will use this opportunity to make
our situation seem hopeless.
Our
ego will look for every opportunity to discourage our most recent
out-of-the-box venture. And our ego will see our expanded “to do” list as an
excellent opportunity to play its trump card called “overwhelm”.
A defeatist attitude
But overwhelm is nothing more than a
defeatist attitude that begins with the fear that we won’t get it all done.
Being snowed under is just a story our ego will use every time we get a
little too much on “our plate”. How do we deal with the ego’s fear tactic?
We
never get everything done on our list all at once. The things we don’t get
to today will be there patiently waiting for us tomorrow.
But I have to do it all myself
Overwhelm comes from thinking, “I have to
do it all myself and that there will be some sore of severe penalty or
consequence if I don’t get it all done.” Of course, those imagined penalties
are not real. They are just a story our ego made up to get us back in the
old box.
The
logic for dealing with overwhelm is that almost everybody has more to do
than they will ever get done. Nobody gets it all done! Our response to this
ego ploy could be, “So I don’t get to all of it today; that’s OK! What I
don’t get done today will be waiting for me to do tomorrow.”
Ego in charge
Notice when we are into the panic of
overwhelm, our ego is definitely in charge. Step back out of that ego trap
and be the observer. We will want to think of our ego as our inner child who
is afraid of the perceived terrible consequences if it does not accomplish
everything on the list. It is our jobs to take care of our inner child and
give it reassurance that it is OK to accomplish what we can.
When
we make our to-do list it is important to prioritize the items. Make it
completely acceptable that we don’t get everything done today. Then begin to
accomplish the top items on the list first.
The
interesting thing about making it acceptable not to get it all done is that
we will probably get everything done and more, simply because we have taken
the stress out of the equation. In fact with fear out of the way, we will be
astonished at how much actually gets done.
Have a great weekend!
