If you frequently tell yourself that you have “so much to do,” read on.

You think you’re overwhelmed because you have so much to do, but there’s actually something else going on.

Overwhelm happens when you think you have so much to do AND you don’t believe you have the time, energy, or talent to do it.

If you believed you had so much to do and could get it all done, you’d feel calm, maybe even energized.

I’m not here to tell you “Good news! You can get it all done.”

The reality is, you might not be able to get it all done, based on your current capacity.

So, here’s how to stop overwhelm:

• Either realize that you do have enough time, energy, and talent for everything you want to get done right now (and stop telling yourself that you don’t), or
• Realize you don’t have enough time, energy, and talent for everything you want to get done right now—and ruthlessly dump, delegate, and delay accordingly.

Think of it like having a bucket that represents your unique 100% capacity.

(You can trade this bucket in for a bigger one later, but for now, this is your bucket.)

Anything that you mentally cling on to above your 100% capacity is unnecessarily torturing yourself.

These expectations that you can’t possibly meet aren’t helping you grow and strive. They’re causing you burnout and angst.

Those are your only two options. If you want to reduce overwhelm, you must pick one, and proceed accordingly.

You might feel shame, guilt, or serious discomfort in the process, but on the other side awaits a calm, empowered certainty that you might not have felt in a long time.

Just ask my client, Jane* who recently said: “I am able to see that I was doing this to myself [holding on to things beyond my 100% capacity]. I was allowing myself to honor ridiculous requests [from clients] on impossible schedules and it just wasn’t working anymore. I’m done.

I CAN choose what work I accept and which requests I am able to honor.”

Cristina

P.S. If you want my hands-on help with these, let’s spend 8 weeks together, figuring out your unique 100% capacity.

It’s only available in my program, Half-Finished to Done, LIVE, the meeting place for soon-to-be former procrastinators who want to finish their half-done projects in a fun, reliable, sustainable way. 

*Name changed for anonymity