Overwhelmed?

Posted on June 4, 2019 by Beth Terry — 5 Comments ↓

You Can Conquer Your Overwhelm!

Feeling like this lately?

You aren’t alone. Overwhelm seems to be a natural state for many these days. We live in an information-rich society. A lot of it is not useful or correct. It’s misleading, or just nonsense. Now we have to add to our workload by researching and sifting through the nonsense to find the truth.

The result? We procrastinate. If something looks like too much work, we put it off. We feel dread at the thought of tackling it. Then comes discouragement or disillusion. As one comedian has said, “There are just too many tabs open in my brain!”

I can relate. I’m an information junkie. I am easily distracted by new information or an interesting story. My dad’s mantra was always, “Look it up!” So I do. That leads to another story, another vignette, another interesting picture. I want to know it all! I love to read and know that when I retire, I’ll spend entire days doing just that.

But that doesn’t get the work done today!

These aren’t the only causes of Overwhelm, but they’re the ones that resonate with me. Other causes include Mongoose Management, or Chaos Management; Manager’s Myopia (shortsightedness); and the need to be a Superhero!! We know that person. They always swoop in to save the day. We let them because we’re in overwhelm and they seem to know what they’re doing…

There are other causes, but what matters are the SOLUTIONS! Here are a few I cover in my programs on this topic:

FOCUS ~ Pay attention to where you are focused and control that. If you’re like me and easily – SQUIRREL! – distracted, try setting a timer and committing to stay focused on one thing for 12 minutes. Then reset the timer and go for another 12. The words I use are, “I will read that while I’m eating dinner and not before…”
FIND SOLUTIONS ~ Too many times we focus on blame. Unless lawyers are going to get involved, is this really important? Recognizing the source of a problem is a good idea. But let it go! Instead, narrow your focus and ask, “What can I do RIGHT NOW to address this? What can I do in an hour? In a week?”
DETACH! If you’ve known me for very long you know this is a biggie. Here’s what I wrote this last New Years Day: “Remember to Detach. Step back from social media, step away from big crowds for a bit. Let go of relatives who make you crazy (love them from afar!) Forget trying to control other people. BREATHE.”
MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES ~ How long do you think you have? Really. How long do you think you’ll get away with making bad choices? Choices have consequences. You’ll never get today back. Choose Wisely. Remember this:

You are the only person who is 100% affected by 100% of the choices you make!

CREATE GOOD HABITS ~ What do you want your life to look like in a year? What habits can you create to get you there? One step at a time. One tiny exercise at a time. One walk with the dog. One change in bedtime. One elimination of another bad habit and replacement with a good one.

You got this.

Tell you what. I can schedule a live Zoom conversation with you and your team called Conquering Overwhelm and Becoming Productive. I’ve kept the price low so you can do this. Everyone who joins us will get access not only to the personalized recording, but also to a gift basket of downloads that will help you as you lower your stress and improve your life. Contact me and let’s get this new Post-Covid life going! This will be great fun, funny, and stress relieving.

See you there!

Contact me here – https://everybodyslost.com/contact-beth/

To your health!

What’s the Real Reason You’re Upset?

Posted on September 8, 2015 by — No Comments ↓

It’s not what you think

She was really irritated. Everyone was telling her what to do about her cold. I listened to her rant about it for awhile, then asked her, “What’s this really about?” She stopped and looked at me like my dog does when I’m talking to him. “What do you mean, ‘what’s this really about?'”

“I don’t think you’re upset for the reasons you think you are. I think there’s a back story here. What’s the real reason?”

She laughed for the first time, “Yeah. How come all these people care more about my health than my husband does? I mean, I’ve been sick for days and he hasn’t even offered to make me soup! And here people in the store want to bring me soup from home!!!”

“Ah. That makes sense. Did you tell him?”

“Tell him?! He should just know!“

“Nah. He can’t read your mind. He’s a guy. You’re upset because he can’t read your mind. You should be happy that he can’t read your mind, especially since you’re so angry right now. That’s a scary proposition for a man. Maybe you haven’t clicked on the ‘help me’ button in his brain yet. You know all of us need to be taught to understand our Beloveds. You haven’t been married that long. It takes years to figure this stuff out. Teach him. Don’t be mad at him!”

“How?”

“Try this: ‘Honey, when I feel like this I really need to feel protected and taken care of. Would you please make me some soup or that cool ginger/lemon/honey drink you made last time? Thank you. Love you!’ ~ You know, it always helps to be appreciative and not demanding. Let him know what you need … and then when he’s sick, show him how to take care of someone you love. What goes around..

~~~~

What’s the real reason for your upset? Have you assigned reasons without thinking it through? How can you solve this if you don’t know what it’s really about? No one else can read your mind. Once you understand where the pain is coming from, you might be able to communicate what you need to the other person, or at the very least do something to fix the situation.

I wasn’t always this smart about how our brains work. I was having a rough day many years ago when a friend slipped me a little book called, “Love is Letting Go of Fear.” It was a life changer. Highly recommend it. OH! I’m upset and I’m picking the first thing that comes into my little brain to explain it! Maybe it’s a chemical reaction to food, maybe I just have a headache, maybe I said something that confused the other person and they are acting on their best guess! Hey! Maybe I should check with them!

Life’s hard enough without jumping to conclusions about what other people are or are not thinking. Work on this little gem and your life will get easier. Promise.

Cheers,

Problems Are the Wind in Your Sails

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

Problems are the reason you were hired

Problems Are Wind — Problems are the Wind in Your Sails that keep you employed and employable.

Here’s your job description: SOLVE PROBLEMS. Everyone’s job is to solve a problem. Most people hate problems at work. Yet without them, you wouldn’t have a job. Your JOB is to solve the problems you were hired to solve. When you were interviewed, didn’t they ask you: can you fix this? can you do this? can you analyze this? All of those are PROBLEM SOLVING ACTIVITIES. How cool is that?

Think about it — Why else are you here? Why do you think you got your job? Even if you work at Mickey Dees, when you ask, “Would you like fries with that?” You are helping the customer AND McDonalds solve a problem. You solve the customers hunger and impulse problem and you solve McDonalds’ problem that it has food to sell and needs people to give them money for it.

Here’s the deal: if you think of your job as “solving problems,” then you won’t get so upset when they come up. Just think of them as Job Security! And you will realize one of the great secrets in Life… you aren’t all that different from the Corporate President or anyone else. All they do all day is solve problems, too!